Rajkumar Nalinikanta is the President of Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE), which is a non-profit organization in Manipur, India. He is a former drug user living with HIV for the last 20 years. He has been working in the field of viral hepatitis since 2012, both in the state and at the national level. He also currently serves as a Member of the Steering Committee of the Manipur State Management Unit of the National Viral Hepatitis Control Program.
Under his leadership, CoNE has delivered impactful programs and models, including the same day tests and treatment for Hepatitis C. CoNE’s work has also led to the development of
- Publication of HCV prevalence data among people who use drugs in Manipur;
- Publication of Community-led Monitoring of HIV and Viral Hepatitis service: lessons learned and impacts from India and Indonesia as a field note in the Journal of the International AIDS Society;
- Publication of Comparison of Serological Immune Response to Hepatitis B Vaccine Following Rapid or Standard Regimen in People Who Inject Drugs in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology; and
- Treatment of Hepatitis C among prison inmates.
CoNE’s work on Hepatitis C has also won several global awards and felicitations, including top 5 global innovative testing model competitions organized by WHO, and the best abstract in an international symposium featuring several WHO presentations and policy documents.
