Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

MD (Russia), MPH (JNU)

Personal Statement

Physician and Public Health specialist by training and currently holding position of ‘Scientist – E (Medical)’ at ICMR -National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), Chennai under Communicable Diseases division of ICMR. The NIRT is India’s foremost national research institute for Tuberculosis under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and is a WHO collaborating centre for Research and Training in Tuberculosis. Research interests include Clinical Trials, Communicable Diseases, Tuberculosis, Childhood Tuberculosis, Extra-pulmonary tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, COVID-19 vaccine, Tuberculosis Vaccine, identifying markers in TB diagnosis and treatment prognosis, Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, ADR monitoring for vaccine and ATT-drugs, identifying risk factors for tuberculosis disease progression, exploring the use of adjunct therapies for tuberculosis management, and identification of effective strategy to control Tuberculosis.

Research Focus

• • Clinical Trials in TB drugs and vaccine
• • ADR monitoring of TB drugs and vaccine
• • Asymptomatic / subclinical Tuberculosis
• • Extra-pulmonary / Lymphnode Tuberculosis
• • Childhood tuberculosis
• • Post-tuberculosis lung disease

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

Study Title: Extended follow-up of the PreVenTB trial for effectiveness of VPM1002 vaccine compared to placebo in the prevention of TB disease at 5 to 6 years post-vaccination among household contacts of persons with pulmonary tuberculosis (PwPTB) in India.

Significant Publications

1. Singh M, Joshi S, Vohra V, Sarin R, Kamble SV, Velayutham B, Mohan A, Singh UB, Kumar R, Pati S, Pattnaik M, Mohapatra PR, Shankar U, Narasimhaiah S, Yadav G, Hissar S, et. al. Efficacy and safety of VPM1002 and Immuvac in preventing tuberculosis: phase 3 randomised clinical trial (PreVenTB trial). BMJ. 2026 Apr 9;393:e085716. doi: 10.1136/bmj-2025-085716. PMID: 41962942; PMCID: PMC13063398. [Impact Factor - 42.7]

2. Velayutham B*, Hissar S*, Thiruvengadam K, Narayan Sivaramakrishnan G, Subramanyam B, et al. Xpert MTB/RIF assay in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in children in tertiary care setting in South India. J Trop Pediatr. 2024 Aug 10;70(5):fmae024. doi: 10.1093/tropej/fmae024. PMID: 39152039. [Impact Factor - 1.11]

3. Hissar S*, Velayutham B*, Tamizhselvan M, Rathinam S, Arunbabu C, et al. 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 Infect Dis. 2024 Jul 25;24(1):729. doi: 10.1186/s12879-024-09511-w. PMID: 39054415; PMCID: PMC11270935.

[Impact Factor - 3.0]

4. Kumar SR, Hissar SS, Ramesh PM, Shanmugam M, Kalaiselvan V, Prakash J, Padmapriyadarsini C. Ethambutol-induced optic neuropathy: should we mandate ophthalmic examination in TB treatment? Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2024 Jan 1;28(1):51-53. doi: 10.5588/ijtld.23.0304. PMID: 38178302.

[Impact Factor – 3.1]

5. Turkova A, Wills GH, Wobudeya E, Chabala C, Palmer M, Kinikar A, Hissar S, et al; SHINE Trial Team. Shorter Treatment for Nonsevere Tuberculosis in African and Indian Children. N Engl J Med. 2022 Mar 10;386(10):911-922. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2104535. PMID: 35263517; PMCID: PMC7612496.

[Impact Factor – 78.5]

6. Kumar NP*, Hissar S*, Thiruvengadam K, Banurekha VV, Balaji S, Elilarasi S, Gomathi NS, Ganesh J, Aravind MA, Baskaran D, Tripathy S, Swaminathan S, Babu S. Plasma chemokines as immune biomarkers for diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis. BMC Infect Dis. 2021 Oct 11;21(1):1055. doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-06749-6. PMID: 34635070; PMCID: PMC8504024. [Impact Factor - 3.0]

7. Kumar NP*, Hissar S*, Thiruvengadam K, Banurekha VV, Suresh N, Shankar J, S E, N S G, S K, J G, M A A, Baskaran D, Tripathy S, Swaminathan S, Babu S. Discovery and Validation of a Three-Cytokine Plasma Signature as a Biomarker for Diagnosis of Pediatric Tuberculosis. Front Immunol. 2021 Apr 16;12:653898. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.653898. PMID: 33936077; PMCID: PMC8085486. [Impact Factor – 5.9]

8. Raizada N, Khaparde SD, Swaminathan S, Sarin S, Salhotra VS, Kalra A, Khanna A, Chopra KK, Hanif M, Umadevi KR, Hissar S, Nair SA, Prakash CHS, Saha BK, Rao R, Denkinger C, Boehme C. Catalysing progressive uptake of newer diagnostics by health care providers through outreach and education in four major cities of India. PLoS One. 2018 Mar 6;13(3):e0193341. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193341. PMID: 29509803; PMCID: PMC5839557. [Impact Factor – 2.6]

9. Kumar M, Satapathy S, Monga R, Das K, Hissar S, Pande C, Sharma BC, Sarin SK. A randomized controlled trial of lamivudine to treat acute hepatitis B. Hepatology. 2007 Jan;45(1):97-101. doi: 10.1002/hep.21486. PMID: 17187417. [Impact Factor – 33.0]

10. Hissar SS, Goyal A, Kumar M, Pandey C, Suneetha PV, Sood A, Midha V, Sakhuja P, Malhotra V, Sarin SK. Hepatitis C virus genotype 3 predominates in North and Central India and is associated with significant histopathologic liver disease. J Med Virol. 2006 Apr;78(4):452-8. doi: 10.1002/jmv.20561. PMID: 16482560. [Impact Factor – 4.6]

Awards and Honours

MAJOR GENERAL SAHEB SINGH SOKHEY AWARD – 2010 awarded in September 2013 by Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi for significant contributions in the field of ‘Communicable Diseases’ by a young medical scientist, adding to the existing knowledge in biomedical research.

Research Profiles