Dr. Iyanthimala Abeyewickreme, Senior Consultant Venereologist and former Director, National STD/AIDS Control Programme (NSACP), Ministry of Healthcare & Nutrition, will assume duties as the Regional Advisor STD/HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization South East Asian Regional Office (SEARO) in New Delhi later this month.
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| Dr. Iyanthimala Abeyewickreme |
A dedicated public health specialist, Dr. Abeyewickreme has devoted 26 years of her professional career to the clinical care of patients, teaching and training varied health professionals, research, policy formulation and programme management towards the control and prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV/AIDS in Sri Lanka.
A graduate of the Faculty of Medicine Colombo, Dr. Abeyewickreme opted for a career in Venereology in 1982. After training at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield UK from 1982-85, she joined the National STD Programme (as it was known then) in 1985 as a medical officer, becoming a Consultant Venereologist in 1992.
In 1997 she assumed duties as the Director, of the National STD/AIDS Control Programme (NSACP). Her tenure as Director, saw the NSACP reach its heights as a premier public health programme in the country.
She has been closely associated with the planning and implementation of two IDA/ World Bank funded projects of US$ 16 million from 1998 to 2008. This allowed the country to mount a concerted response against HIV/AIDS.
She played a lead role in the establishment of the College of Venereologists in 1998 to advance the speciality, which led to the establishment of the Board of Study in Venereology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM), University of Colombo.
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