Dr Banu Rekha V.V
Dr Banu Rekha V.V
Designation: Scientist F
Division/Unit: Clinical Research
Email: banurekha[dot]vv[at]icmr[dot]gov[dot]in
Educational Qualification
MBBS., MPH., PGDBE
Personal Statement
Dr V.V. Banurekha is working as Scientist F in the Department of Clinical Research at the National Institute for Research in TB, ICMR, Chennai. She completed her MBBS at the Madras Medical College, Chennai and MPH at the National Institute of Epidemiology, ICMR School of Public Health, Chennai. She has a Post graduate Diploma in Bioethics. At the National Institute for Research in TB she is involved in Clinical trials and Operational research studies focusing on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of TB.
Research Focus
- • Randomised controlled trials in TB treatment – shorter regimens, adjunct treatment
- • TB vaccine research
- • Nutritional supplementation in TB
- • TB diagnostics in children
- • TB preventive therapy
Ongoing projects as Principal investigator
Feasibility of implementation of Out-patient (OP) Screen TB initiative for pulmonary TB case detection in Primary Health Care settings
Significant Publications
1. Banu Rekha VV, Jagarajamma K, Fraser Wares, Chandrasekaran V, Soumya Swaminathan. Contact screening and chemoprophylaxis in the Indian TB Control Programme: a situational analysis. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2009; 13(12): 1507-1512 [Citations -94]
2. Jawahar MS, Banurekha VV, Paramasivan CN, Rahman F, Ramachandran R, et al. (2013) Randomized Clinical Trial of Thrice-Weekly 4-Month Moxifloxacin or Gatifloxacin Containing Regimens in the Treatment of New Sputum Positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients. PLoS ONE 8(7): e67030. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0067030 [Citations – 131]
3. Banurekha V. Velayutham, Iliayas S. Allaudeen, Gomathi N. Sivaramakrishnan, Venkatesan Perumal, Dina Nair, Ponnuraja Chinnaiyan et al. Sputum Culture Conversion With Moxifloxacin-Containing Regimens in the Treatment of Patients With Newly Diagnosed Sputum-Positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis in South India. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2014;59(10):e142–9 [Citations- 25]
4. Velayutham B, Chadha VK, Singla N, Narang P, Gangadhar Rao V, Nair S, et al. (2018) Recurrence of tuberculosis among newly diagnosed sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients treated under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, India: A multi- centric prospective study. PLoS ONE 13(7): e0200150 [Citations – 65]
5. Banurekha Velayutham, Mohideen Shaheed Jawahar, Dina Nair, Pooranagangadevi Navaneethapandian, Chinnaiyan Ponnuraja, Kandasamy Chandrasekaran et al. 4-month moxifloxacin containing regimens in the treatment of patients with sputum-positive pulmonary tuberculosis in South India – a randomised clinical trial. Tropical Medicine and International Health 2020; 25: 483-495 [Citations -22]
6. Velayutham B, Thiruvengadam K, Kumaran PP, Watson B, Rajendran K, Padmapriyadarsini C. Revisiting the Chingleput BCG vaccination trial for the impact of BCG revaccination on the incidence of tuberculosis disease. Indian J Med Res. 2023 Feb-Mar;157(2&3):152-159. doi: 10.4103/ijmr.ijmr_1540_22. PMID: 36124494 [Citations-19]
7. Bhargava A, Bhargava M, Meher A, Benedetti A, Velayutham B, Sai Teja G, et al. Nutritional supplementation to prevent tuberculosis incidence in household contacts of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in India (RATIONS): a field-based, open-label, cluster-randomised, controlled trial. Lancet. 2023 Aug 19;402(10402):627-640. [Citations-172]
8. Bhargava A, Bhargava M, Meher A, Teja GS, Velayutham B, Watson B, et al. Nutritional support for adult patients with microbiologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis: outcomes in a programmatic cohort nested within the RATIONS trial in Jharkhand, India. Lancet Glob Health. 2023 Sep;11(9):e1402-e1411. [Citations-114]
9. Selvaraju, S., Velayutham, B., Rao, R., Rade, K., Thiruvengadam, K., Asthana, S.,et al. Prevalence and factors associated with tuberculosis infection in India. Journal of infection and public health 2023, 16(12), 2058–2065 [Citations-55]
10. Velayutham B, Hissar S, Thiruvengadam K, 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;70(5):fmae024. doi:10.1093/tropej/fmae024 [Citations-4]
Awards and Honours
Delivered the Dr P.K.Sen TAI gold medal oration on 19 October 2024 in the 79th National Conference of TB and Chest Diseases, NATCON-2024, organised by TAI from 18 to 20 October 2024.
