Dr. Puvaneswari Subramaniam

Dr. Puvaneswari Subramaniam is a public health specialist who has served the Health Department of Malaysia with distinction for over four decades. Dr. Puvaneswari completed her MBBS in 1984 and started her career as a House Officer in Hospital Taiping, Perak in 1985. She was subsequently appointed as a multi-disciplinary Medical Officer and served in the anaesthesia unit of Hospital Taiping and Hospital Ipoh for four years.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Puvaneswari was transferred to the public health division of Selangor state where she played an instrumental role in initiating early intervention programmes in health clinics across the state.

She returned to Perak in 1994 and was posted to the Kinta Health District where she was responsible for managing several different public health programmes. In 1996, Dr. Puvaneswari was transferred to the Occupational Health Unit in the State Health Department of Perak. In this role she also worked closely with policy makers and expanded the public health scope, which led her to complete her Masters Degree in Public Health at Universiti Malaya in 1999.

Dr. Puvaneswari was then appointed as District Health Officer for the Perak Tengah district for a period of two years, before she was appointed to the Epidemiology Unit in the Perak State Health Office.

Later, Dr. Puvaneswari was tasked to head the tuberculosis and leprosy control programme for Perak state – a role which she held for a significant length of time in which she made dramatic headway in addressing patient welfare. Whilst in office, she initiated various programmes which included screening of marginalised populations for these diseases. Dr. Puvaneswari also reintroduced educational programmes aimed at both the public and health professionals, to improve their knowledge and awareness of leprosy. Several breakthroughs in treatment completion and contact screening were also made during her tenure.

Dr. Puvaneswari joined the Malaysian Leprosy Relief Association’s (MaLRA) in 2014 and was designated as lead of the Perak team in 2018. Dr. Puvaneswari was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of MaLRA in 2024, and she continues to play a key role in supporting MaLRA’s objectives both at its headquarters as well as in the state of Perak.