Dr Ishwar Gilada is the President of the AIDS Society of India, Secretary General of People's Health Organisation (PHO), and a Governing Council member of the International AIDS Society, Geneva. He is a globally acclaimed HIV expert, credited with raising the first alarm against AIDS in India (1985), detecting the country’s first HIV cases (1985), and establishing India’s first AIDS clinic (1986) at JJ Hospital, Mumbai. After graduating from Government Medical College, Aurangabad, Dr. Gilada specialized in Skin and STDs, earning his Diplomate of American Board of Sexology for a dissertation on the "Pattern of STDs among Hijras (transgenders)." He received advanced HIV training at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey (1987). Dr. Gilada founded PHO, leading pioneering HIV interventions, including the Saheli Project for sex workers and PMTCT models recognized globally by UNAIDS. PHO was named "Most Outstanding Indian NGO" by the US-India Business Council (1997), and his work was featured in the award-winning documentary Saheli – A Friend in Need. A policymaker and program implementer, he supervised 38 HIV/AIDS projects across seven Indian states, consulted for USAID and World Vision, and evaluated Zambia’s National STD/AIDS Control program. He established India’s first private HIV clinic, Unison Medicare and Research Centre (1995), managing over 7,000 patients and setting a benchmark for resource-poor settings. Dr. Gilada has delivered over 3,750 lectures globally, trained thousands of healthcare professionals, and authored 275 scientific papers. He chaired multiple national and international AIDS conferences and represented Asia-Pacific on the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society. A fierce advocate for human rights, he played a key role in repealing discriminatory laws, such as Goa’s Public Health Act, and championed access to HIV treatment, with India now supplying 92% of global antiretroviral therapy needs. Among his many accolades, he was named “The Outstanding Young Person of the World” by Junior Chamber International (1995). Dr. Gilada continues to be a relentless force in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
