“Nireekshana’s
first patient came in June 2004 from a village in Karimnagar,
about 200 km from Hyderabad. Now Nireekshana
has 53 patients”. Dr. Sujai Suneetha and his wife
Dr. Lavanya Suneetha have a God given vision to care for
the 
HIV/AIDS
affected patients. Dr. Sujai, an MBBS and Ph.D in Pathology
from CMC Vellore, has 20 years experience in the field
of leprosy treatment and research at various leprosy institutions.
In December 2003, Dr. Sujai left Lepra India where he
was the Director Research, because he sensed an urgent
need for the aggressive spread of HIV/AIDS. He started
Nireekshana
in June 2004. Dr. Sujai has 40 research publications in
national and international journals. He is a member of
scientific and ethical committees like CDFD (Centre for
DNA Fingerprinting & Diagnostics) and TLM (The Leprosy
Mission) South Asia, among other organizations. Dr. Sujai
is married to Dr. Lavanya and they have two daughters.
They stay in Hyderabad. Dr. Lavanya together with Dr.
Sujai is the founding member of Nireekshana
Dr. Lavanya Suneetha is M.Sc. Ph.D. in Biochemistry and
is a scientist in mole
cular
biology at the Institute of Genetics, Osmania University.
Her research includes muscular dystrophy, leprosy, tuberculosis
and HIV/AIDS. She received the Young
Scientist Award from the Indian Society
of Human Genetics. Her aim in HIV/AIDS is to develop low
cost laboratory tests to detect HIV and to monitor the
level of infection. She is also a trained counselor with
the Institute of Christian Counselling in Bangalore and
Hyderabad.
