Biography 2021

Dr. Priscilla Rupali

Dr Priscilla Rupali is Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Christian Medical College Vellore in South India.She worked for 1 1/2 years as a Senior ID fellow in the Department of Adult Infectious Diseases at Auckland City Hospital and subsequently underwent a "Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene" at the Universidad Cayetano Heredia at Lima Peru which is affiliated to the University of Alabama Birmingham. She runs a very popular Clinical Tropical Medicine course at CMC Vellore annually which provides lectures, bedside sessions and laboratory sessions by internationally acclaimed faculty. She has also been faculty of the "Fellowship in HIV Medicine" which was a pioneer distance learning course educating people in HIV Medicine in the early 2000s when HAART was not freely available.

She has also undergone formal training in "Transplant Infectious Diseases" at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and then gone back and has been instrumental in establishing Transplant related services in her hospital and has been the founder of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Conference in Vellore, Chennai and Ludhiana which combines Infectious Disease related issues in India both in Solid organ and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. She has also been instrumental in setting up and antimicrobial stewardship program in her hospital and plans to diversify to implement antimicrobial stewardship at the primary, secondary and tertiary care levels through various novel training programs targeting clinical pharmacists and physicians committed to working long term at secondary care hospitals.She holds extensive knowledge and experience in the field of enteric fever leading a number of studies with emphasis on treatment and multidrug resistance of Salmonella. The Infectious Diseases Department at CMC Vellore has been a pioneer in promoting Infectious Diseases as a clinical specialty in India and now is the 2nd Department to run the DM in Infectious Diseases in the Country.

Dr Bhagteshwar Singh

Bhagteshwar Singh is a clinical research fellow in the Brain Infections Group at the University of Liverpool, currently based at at Christian Medical College Vellore. He has led Cochrane and other systematic reviews, and is a clinician with a background in infectious diseases and internal medicine, having trained mostly in Liverpool and Manchester, UK. He is coordinating multiple research studies on neurological infections and COVID-19, and helped set up the CMC Vellore Clinical Treatment Group in 2020.

Dr. Tom Solomon

Professor Tom Solomon is Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Chair of Neurological Science at the University of Liverpool and the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust. After qualifying in Medicine at Oxford, his research training included 3 years at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, and 2 at the University of Texas Medical Brain, Galveston, USA.

He works on emerging pathogens, particularly those that affect the brain, heading the multi-disciplinary Liverpool Brain Infections Group. His group works to reduce the UK and global burden of emerging neurological infections in adults and children, including major UK and international programmes on Covid-19.

Tom is a keen teacher, leading the annual Neurological Infectious Diseases course in Liverpool, and an enthusiastic science communicator; his popular science book Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine was published in 2016, and followed by a sell-out show of the same name at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017. He won a Guinness World Record in 2010 for the fastest marathon dressed as a doctor, and another in 2014 for his Sci-Art project The World’s Biggest Brain.  He hosts the Scouse Science Podcast, and tweets @RunningMadProf.

Dr. George Alangaden

George Alangaden MD is currently the Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases at Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) in Detroit, Michigan. He is also Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSU).

Dr. Alangaden received his MBBS medical degree from Goa Medical College and the University of Bombay in 1981. Having completed his medical residency (MD degree) from the University of Bombay in 1984, he pursued additional training in the United Kingdom. He obtained his MRCP degree from the Royal College of Physicians and served as a Senior Registrar in Medicine at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry, England. Since his arrival in the United States in 1989 he completed a residency and then a three-year fellowship in Infectious Diseases at WSU. He served as faculty in Infectious Diseases at WSU since 1994 and was promoted to Professor of Medicine in 2008. Since 2012 he has served as the Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at HFHS and the Medical Director of Infection Control for HFH (until 2017). He presently is the Program Director of advanced fellowships in Transplant Infectious Diseases and Infection Control and Antimicrobial Stewardship at HFHS. Dr Alangaden is a member and fellow of several professional societies, including the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and American Society of Transplantation.

Dr. Suneetha Narreddy

Dr. Suneetha Narreddy is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in Infectious Diseases. She has close to two decades of experience in the field of medicine and is currently working at Apollo Health City, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad.

Dr. Narreddy had her initial training at Christian Medical College, Vellore. She then moved to the USA, where she did her Internal Medicine and subspecialization in Infectious Diseases. She is the recipient of best research award for her research on complementary medicine use in patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Dr. Narreddy’s area of expertise includes nosocomial infections, infections in immuno-compromised host, HIV, complicated infections like fungal infections, multi drug-resistant tuberculosis, H1N1, and travel medicine. At Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad she chairs the Antimicrobial stewardship committee and is a member of the Infection control committee.  She is a member of the Global Drug-resistant TB Initiative (GDI)- Stop Tb Partnership Initiative, State level Difficult to Treat TB Case Clinic (DT3C) for Telangana State in India. She is part of the medical advisory committee for COVID in the state of Telangana, India.

Dr. Balamugesh Thangakunam

  • NAME : Dr. Balamugesh Thangakunam
  • Place : Vellore, Tamil Nadu
  • Qualifications  : MBBS, MD(Int Med), DM(Pulm. Med & Crit. Care),FRCP (Lon), FCCP (USA)
  • Present  Position : Professor & Head Dept. of Pulmonary Medicine, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, India
  • After finishing DM from PGIMER, Chandigarh has been working in Christian Medical College from 2003.
  • Awarded Indian Council for Medical Research award in recognition for significant contributions for biomedical research - “Smt. Kamal Satbir Award” for the year 2006.
  • Royal College of Physicians of UK international travel bursary for the year 2007
  • Junior Medical Faculty Training Fellowship from CMC, Vellore for the year 2007-08 and got trained in interventional pulmonology in University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
  • 2009-2011. Training in Respiratory medicine in Basildon University Hospital, UK - approved by Royal College of Physicians of London: learnt the art and science of Cardiopulmonary Exercise testing.
  • Locum Respiratory Consultant in Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, United Kingdom 2018-20.
  • Currently co-chair of Clinical and Epidemiological Working group of RePORT India (Collaborative TB research consortium between Dept of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and National Institute of Health, United States of America.
Dr. Kavitha Saravu

Dr Kavitha Saravu, is the Professor and Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Kasturba Medical College Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. She has additional training in Tropical Medicine from LSHTM, London and training in Translational research in Infectious Diseases from Yale School of Medicine, USA. Dr Saravu has 22 years of teaching experience, clinical and research expertise in Infectious diseases, particularly tropical infections like malaria, scrub typhus, Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), melioidosis, COVID-19, TB, and HIV. She has been in the forefront of COVID-19 management at Udupi- Manipal and is the advisor to the Udupi district administration on the pandemic management. Dr Kavitha Saravu has authored chapters on Melioidosis malaria, and TB diagnosis. She has around 100 peer reviewed publications including in Lancet Infectious Diseases. She is a reviewer for 12 international journals including PLOS NTD, PLOS ONE, BMC infectious Diseases, & BMC Medicine. She is on the editorial board of BMC Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Ashita Rebecca Singh

I am a physician (MBBS-CMC Vellore; MD Internal Medicine-CMC Ludhiana) with additional training in Bioethics (MA, Bioethics, Trinity International University, Illinois, USA); Infectious Disease at CMC Vellore (FGID); and Palliative Care (National Fellowship in Palliative Medicine-pending exit exam). I also have experience in critical care, having worked as faculty in the Medical ICU at CMC Vellore for over two years.

I am working with Emmanuel Hospital Association, which is an organisation comprising a network of 20 hospitals spread across North and North-East India, catering to rural populations with limited health care access. (Along with my husband Deepak who is a paediatric surgeon, I have previously worked for seven years in a secondary level hospital in Tezpur, Assam from 2004-2011.)

I am currently working at Chinchpada Christian Hospital for the last 7 years, which is in a remote rural location in the tribal district of Nandurbar in Maharashtra, bordering Gujarat. The hospital serves an impoverished agricultural community, 72% of whom live below the poverty line. There are problems of illiteracy, lack of awareness, and dependence on ancient practices including witchcraft and indigenous medicine.

Dr. Jenifer Jeba

Dr Jenifer Jeba. S
MD (RT), Dip Pal Med, MSc Pal Med (Cardiff, UK)
Professor and Head,
Palliative Care Unit,
Christian Medical College Hospital,Vellore, India

  • After completion of MD (Radiation Oncology) from CMC, Vellore, joined as faculty in Palliative Care Unit at Christian Medical College in 2006
  • Joint recipient of the Cicely Saunders Medal for the top student in Diploma in Palliative Medicine from Cardiff University in June 2008.
  • Honorary Tutor, School of Medicine, Cardiff University
  • Associate Editor, BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care
  • National Faculty of Indian Association of Palliative Care
  • Member of Quality and Clinical Advisory Board of The Jimmy S Bilimoria Foundation, Mumbai, India
  • Task force - joint initiative of Indian Association of Palliative Care and the Academy of Family Physicians of India to advocate primary palliative care
Dr. M. Vivekanandan

Dr. M. Vivekanandan, is currently Professor of Medicine at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research at Pondicherry (JIPMER), India. He is the coordinator for Post-Doctoral Fellowship course in Infectious Diseases and Member Secretary, Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme. He is also faculty, Department of Medical Education and Head of the Department, Department of Emergency Medicine. He graduated from Thanjavur Medical College and did his post-graduation from JIPMER. He was the first to describe and report the widespread presence of scrub typhus in Pondicherry. He has authored several book chapters and over 35 publications. His areas of interest include Infectious Diseases, Medical Education, Biostatistics, Research Methodology, Primary Care, Yoga and Integrative Medicine.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 04132296232, Office, Dept. of Medicine

04132296573, Office, Dept. of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Andrew Babu

Andrew Babu,BPT,MPT,MIAP, Senior Reader and Head of Physiotherapy Unit. He had completed his Bachelor of Physiotherapy Course in1988 at the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, Inida and worked for 2 years at the same hospital and then completed his Master of Physiotherapy Course from Seth GS Medical College and King Edward Memorial Hospital, Bombay, India in the year 1994. After the completion of PG degree he joined back CMC and continues to work till date. He has received "The Best Teacher Award" in the year 2012 from Dr.M.G.R Medical University, Chennai.He has held many administrative posts in CMC viz Head of Physitherapy Unit, Warden, Dorothy Joske Hostel, Onsite Clinical Coordinator for the Overseas Elective Physiotherapy Students, University Guides for MPT and BPTstudents, MPT and BPT Student Selectiom committee member,Scholarship Committee Member, OPTSA staff advisor, OPTAA Ex-Treasurer, Member of Board of Studies in Physiotherapy, Dr.M.G.R Medical University(2005), External Examiner for MPT and BPT students, Department Quality Manager, Member representative of Lifestyle Medicine Team, Occupational Health Team. Research collaboration with the following departs/units - Radiotherapy, Upper GI Surgery Unit, Colorectal Surgery Unit, Endocrinology, Reproductive Medicine Unit,Plartic Surgery, Vascular Surgery.