Suman Kanungo

Biography

Dr Suman Kanungo is a Research Officer in the division of epidemiology in National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata. He joined the institute in April 2008. Before that he worked as a Research coordinator in Kolkata for International Vaccine Institute, Seoul, Korea, an UNDP chartered research institute, engaged in translational research as well as basic research in the field of infectious diseases. After graduating in Medicine in 1991 from Calcutta University, he completed his internship in 1992 and training in Internal Medicine and Chest Medicine in S.S.K.M. hospital (IPGMER) in Kolkata. He completed his post graduate Diploma in Industrial Hygiene in 1995-96 and joined Chittaranjan National Cancer Research Institute in Kolkata and worked there as Clinical registrar in the dept of medical oncology since 2003. In 2003 He joined NICED as consultant Epidemiologist in NICED-IVI collaborative project on diseases surveillance randomized clinical trial of Vi polysaccharide vaccine and bivalent whole cell oral cholera vaccine among 110000 urban slum population to study the disease burden and the efficacy of those vaccines in endemic area like India. He also availed the Fogarty fellowship under AITRP (AIDS Research Training Program) and obtained training in epidemiology in University of California, Los Angeles in 2005 - 2006. In early part of his carrier, as a clinician, his job responsibilities include management of patients admitted in the department of Internal Medicine and chest unit as well as attending patients in out patient department. While in CNCI, he was engaged in Specific clinical management of patients admitted in the department of medical oncology of the hospital and running the daily out patient department and conducting clinical trials. After moving to NICED, he is mainly engaged in conducting several field trials, conducting demographic studies and identifying potentials predictors of risk factors for enteric and other diarrhoeal diseases in urban slum setting. He was responsible protocol designing, implementation of operating procedure, adherence to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and training of the field personnel His special interest in the field of public health is clinical and epidemiological trials, both phase II and III and disease surveillance, with special reference to the outbreak pattern of Vibrio cholerae.. At present he is working as co investigators in some collaborative studies like placebo-controlled, double-blind, single oral dose study to determine the safety and immunogenicity of typhoid vaccine (oral live S. typhi (Ty2 aroC?ssaV?)) in healthy paediatric and adolescent subjects, aged 2 to 17 years inclusive, who reside in the official slums of Kolkata, in collaboration with International Vaccine Institute and Surveillance for dengue fever in eastern Kolkata, West Bengal, India in collaboration with Paediatric Dengue Vaccine Institute. He is also a co investigator in phase II trial of a live oral cholera vaccine in collaboration with Department of Biotechnology, India. He is a life member of Indian Medical Association, and Indian Public health Association.

Research Interest

His special interest in the field of public health is operational research encompassing epidemiological and clinical studies; phase II and III vaccine trials, op and disease surveillance as well as estimating burden both in terms of incidence and economic implications. Beside this, another area of interest is community based studies, both observational as well as intervention trials.