Dr Leelani Rajapaksa

Dr Leelani Rajapaksa served the National STD AIDS Control Programme of Sri Lanka since 1991 until her retirement in 2022 in many capacities as the Director, Deputy Director and consultant venereologist. As the National Consultant of the EMTCT programme (2013–2021), she led the country to achieve validation for EMTCT of HIV and Syphilis in 2019. She served as the national consultant for HIV care and ART programme from 2014 to 2021.  

She has contributed to the development of the specialty of venereology as the chairperson of the Board of Study of Venereology, Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM), Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is a past president of the Sri Lanka college of sexual health and HIV medicine (SLCOSHH). Her contribution is recognized by the award of Fellowship of SLCOSHH in 2005 and Fellowship of PGIM in 2010. 

She serves as the chairperson of the Regional Validation Committee for EMTCT of HIV, Hepatitis and syphilis, South East Asia region since 2023. She is a member of the Strategic Technical Advisory Group on viral hepatitis, HIV and STI for WHO, SEARO. She is a member of the STI guideline development group WHO, Geneva since 2022. As a WHO consultant she supported to improve STI and EMTCT services in countries Timor Leste, Sri Lanka and Maldives. 

She has a medical degree from the university of Colombo Sri Lanka, MSc and MD in community Medicine from Postgraduate Institute of Medicine Colombo and Diploma in STD from Prince of Songkla University, Thailand.