Suniti Solomon

Suniti Solomon (née Gaitonde; 1938 or 1939 – 28 July 2015) was an Indian physician and microbiologist who pioneered AIDS research and prevention in India after having diagnosed the first Indian AIDS cases among the Chennai sex workers in 1986 along with her student Sellappan Nirmala . She founded the YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education in Chennai. The Indian government conferred the National Women Bio-scientist Award on her. On 25 January 2017, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri for medicine for her contributions towards diagnosis and treatment of HIV.

Early life and education Suniti Solomon (née Gaitonde), was born in a Maharashtrian Hindu family of the leather traders in Chennai. She was the seventh child in a family of eight and was the only daughter. In a 2009 interview she said she became interested in medicine from the yearly health officer visits to their home for vaccinations.

She studied medicine at Madras Medical College and then was trained in pathology in the UK, the U.S. and Australia until 1973 when she and her husband, Victor Solomon, returned to Chennai, because "she felt her services were more needed in India." She did her doctorate in microbiology This discovery became the first HIV documentation in India. Since then, Solomon decided to dedicate her life working on HIV/AIDS research, treatment, and awareness. She has described how people shunned HIV infected persons; even her husband did not want her "to work with HIV-positive patients," most of whom at that time were homosexuals, those who self-injected drugs and sex workers. Solomon replied by "you have to listen to their stories and you wouldn’t say the same thing."

Personal life Solomon met her husband, Victor Solomon, a cardiac surgeon, when studying medicine at Madras College. She followed his travels to the UK, US and Australia. He died in 2006. Their son Sunil Solomon is an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 2 months before her death on July 28, 2015, in her home in Chennai, at the age of 76. In 2012, 'Lifetime Achievement Award for Service on HIV/AIDS' by the state-run Dr MGR Medical University in Chennai. and several other awards, like the 'Mother Teresa Memorial Award' for education and humanitarian services. In 2017, the Government of India announced "Padma Shri" award (posthumous) for her distinguished service in the field of medicine

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