Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

M.B.,B.S., B.A.(Psychology), M.P.H (Public Health)

Personal Statement

Medical graduate (Thanjavur Medical College, 1990) and Psychology graduate (Annamalai University, 2001), with specialization in Public Health (Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, 2002). Scientist at National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis since 1991, serving as clinician (Chennai, Madurai) and public health scientist (Tiruvallur) in TB and filariasis trials and surveys. WHO fellow (WIRB, USA, 2005) in bioethics; contributed to IEC leadership and SIDCER-FERCAP recognition (2014), national training, and evaluation of 17 ethics committees (2008–19). Presented widely at national/international forums, mainly in bioethics.

Research Focus

• Started working in the conduct of randomized controlled clinical trial with an Investigational New Drug for Lymphatic Filariasis, and continuing working in the conduct of RCTs for shortening short course chemotherapy for Tuberculosis, drug resistant Tuberculosis manage, and conduct of Tuberculosis disease prevention Vaccine trial, which has lead to about 50 scientific publications both in national and international journals

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

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Significant Publications

1. Tuberculosis Research Centre. Trends in the prevalence and incidence of tuberculosis in south India. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2001; 5 (2): 142-57

2. P R Narayanan, Renu Garg, T Santha, P Paul Kumaran. Shifting the focus of tuberculosis research in India. Tuberculosis 2003; 83: 135-42

3. P Paul Kumaran. Assessment of community infection ratio in the 'Model DOTS Project' area for tuberculosis control. Working paper series – No. 4, October 2003, AMCHSS, SCTIMST, Thiruvananthapuram

4. P G Gopi, R Subramani, T Santha, P P Kumaran, V Kumaraswami, P R Narayanan. Relationship of ARTI to Incidence and Prevalence of Tuberculosis in a district of south India. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2006; 10 (1): 115-17

5. Ettie M Lipner, P G Gopi, R Subramani, C Kolappan, K Sadacharam, Paul Kumaran, D Rebecca Prevots, P R Narayanan, Thomas B Nutman, V Kumaraswami. Coincident filarial, intestinal helminth, and mycobacterial infection: helminthes fail to influence tuberculin reactivity, but BCG influences hookworm prevalence. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2006; 74 (5): 841-47

6. Juntra Karbwang, Nut Koonrungsesomboon, Cristina E. Torres, Edlyn B. Jimenez, Gurpreet Kaur, Roli Mathur, Eti N. Sholikhah, Chandanie Wanigatunge, Chih-Shung Wong, Kwanchanok Yimtae, Murnilina Abdul Malek, Liyana Ahamad Fouzi, Aisyah Ali, Beng Z. Chan, Madawa Chandratilake, Shoen C. Chiew, Melvyn Y. C. Chin, Manori Gamage, Irene Gitek, Mohammad Hakimi, Narwani Hussin, Mohd F. A. Jamil, Pavithra Janarsan, Madarina Julia, Suman Kanungo, Panduka Karunanayake, Sattian Kollanthavelu, Kian K. Kong, Bing-Ling Kueh, Ragini Kulkarni, Paul P. Kumaran, Ranjith Kumarasiri, Wei H. Lim, Xin J. Lim, Fatihah Mahmud, Jacinto B. V. Mantaring III, Siti M. Md Ali, Nurain Mohd Noor, Kopalasuntharam Muhunthan, Elanngovan Nagandran, Maisarah Noor, Kim H. Ooi, Jebananthy A. Pradeepan, Ahmad H. Sadewa, Nilakshi Samaranayake, Shalini Sri Ranganathan, Wasanthi Subasingha, Sivasangari Subramaniam, Nadirah Sulaiman, Ju F. Tay, Leh H. Teng, Mei M. Tew, Thipaporn Tharavanij, Peter S. K. Tok, Jayanie Weeratna, Tri Wibawa, Renu Wickremasinghe, Phanthipha Wongwai, Subhash Yadav and FERCAP Multi-Country Research Team. What information and the extent of information research participants need in informed consent forms: a multi-country survey. BMC Medical Ethics (2018) 19:79.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-018-0318-x

7. Banurekha Velayutham, Mohideen Shaheed Jawahar, Dina Nair, Pooranagangadevi Navaneethapandian, Chinnaiyan Ponnuraja, Kandasamy Chandrasekaran, Gomathi Narayan Sivaramakrishnan, Marimuthu Makesh Kumar, Paramasivam Paul Kumaran, Santhanakrishnan Ramesh Kumar, Dhanaraj Baskaran, Daniel Bella Devaleenal, Devarajulu Reddy Sirasanambati, Mahalingam Vasantha, Paramasivam Palaniyandi, Geetha Ramachandran, Kadayam Ranganathan Uma Devi, Luke Elizabeth Hannah, Gomathi Sekar, Ammayappan Radhakrishnan, Dharuman Kalaiselvi, Angamuthu Dhanalakshmi, Elangovan Thiruvalluvan, Murugesan Raja Sakthivel, Ayyamperumal Mahilmaran, Rathinam Sridhar, Lavanya Jayabal, Prabhakaran Rathinam, Prabhakar Angamuthu, Kumaresan Soorappa Ponnusamy, Perumal Venkatesan, Mohan Natrajan, Srikanth Prasad Tripathy, Soumya Swaminathan. 4‐month moxifloxacin containing regimens in the treatment of patients with sputum‐positive pulmonary tuberculosis in South India – a randomised clinical trial. Tropical Medicine & International Health April 2020; 25 (4): 483–95

8. Bhavani Perumal Kannabiran, Natarajan Alangudi Palaniappan, Tamizhselvan Manoharan, Paul Kumaran Paramasivam, Jitendra Kumar Saini, Mohammed Soheb Ansari, Lavanya Jayabal, Ashutosh N. Aggarwal, Rajiv Garg, Balaji Subramanyam, Deepika Thakur, Shilpa Pantula, Ramesh P M, Vijayachandar GS, Saravanan Natarajan, Radha Krishnan Ammayappan, Bhalla Manpreet, Mangalambal Ganesan, Dhanalakshmi Angamuthu, Ponnuraja Chinnaiyan, Manjula Singh, Padmapriyadarsini Chandrasekaran, and Soumya Swaminathan. Safety and Efficacy of 25 mg/kg and 35 mg/kg vs 10 mg/kg Rifampicin in Pulmonary TB: A Phase IIb Randomized Controlled Trial. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 11, Issue 3, March 2024, ofae034, https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofae034

9. G. Prathiksha, S. Selvaraju, K. Thiruvengadam, A. Frederick, H. Murugesan, P. Rajendran, K. Nagarajan, M. Kumar, R. Krishnan, P. Kumaran, T.S. Selvavinayagam, C. Padmapriyadarsini. Programmatic implications of a sub-national TB prevalence survey in India. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases 2024; 28(7):348–353

10. Syed Hissar, Banurekha Velayutham, Manoharan Tamizhselvan, Sridhar Rathinam, Chinnadurai Arunbabu, Jayanthi Bharathi Vidhya, Gurusamy Vargunapandian, Anandakrishnan Sundararajaperumal, Gomathi Narayan Sivaramakrishnan, Silambu Chelvi, Paranchi Murugesan Ramesh, Damodharan Arun, Sirasanambati Devarajulu Reddy, Paramasivam Paul Kumaran, Marimuthu Makesh Kumar, Dharuman Kalaiselvi, Luke Elizabeth Hanna, Hemanth Kumar, Alagarsamy Gowrisankar, Ramasamy Rajavelu, Lavanya Jayabal, Chinnayan Ponnuraja and Dhanaraj Baskaran. Efficacy and tolerability of a 4-month ofloxacin-containing regimen compared to a 6-month regimen in the treatment of patients with superficial lymph node tuberculosis: a randomized trial. BMC Infectious Diseases 2024; 24:729.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-024-09511-w

Awards and Honours

Hold life memberships with national and international bodies like (i) Association for Social Health in India (ASHI), Indian Association for Preventive & Social Medicine (IAPSM), Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), and (ii) WHO-SIDCER Network forums, namely Forum for Ethics Review Committees in Asia Pacific (FERCAP), and Forum for Ethics Review Committees in India (FERCI)

Research Profiles