Dr. Cinzia S. Keechilot, 2012 MBBS student, received the ICMR, Calcutta National Medical College (CNMC) Short Term Studentship (STS) Excellence Award 2017, from Dr. Harsh Vardhan (Hon’ble Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India) at ICMR Awards Ceremony at the ICMR HQ, New Delhi, on October 16, 2019.

Her study “Detection of Occult Hepatitis B and Window Period Infection among Blood Donors by Individual Donation Nucleic Acid Testing in a Tertiary Care Center in South India” is the first study from Kerala to document occult hepatitis B in blood donors.

Dr. Cinzia tried to investigate occult hepatitis B and window period infection among blood donors by individual donation nucliec acid testing. The overall incidence of occult hepatitis B and window period infections was found to be low at 1 in 6503 and 1 in 24214 donations, respectively.