Janaki Kuruppu, MD

Dr. Kuruppu has a multicultural background, whose father came from Sri Lanka and met her mother, and American, in graduate school.  Dr. Kuruppu was born in London, England, and lived in Pennsylvania and upstate New York, before living for two years in Sri Lanka as a child.  Her family finally settled in California, where she earned her undergraduate degree in Biology with Honors at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  She came to the Metro DC area in 1992 to attend medical school at GWU School of Medicine, and then trained at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Internal Medicine residency program.

She loved primary care, and had a wonderful experience caring for her panel of veterans at the Baltimore VAMC during her residency, but she also wanted to care for patients living with HIV, and proceeded to an Infectious Disease fellowship at NIH, at the NIAID.  

She has done research in immunology related to HIV and Hepatitis C, work on side effects of antiretroviral medications, and factors that affect the inadequate immunological responses to therapy in people living with HIV.  She worked for five years with the PEPFAR program, in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Haiti, helping to set up HIV clinics in rural communities and educating medical providers in these clinics to provide longitudinal HIV care.  She also has significant experience with providing end-of-life care, and discussing advanced directives with patients and families facing the difficult decisions when treatment options become limited.