The 'Red Ribbon Express' train which aims to create awareness about HIV/AIDS patients arrived at Thakurganj railway station in Kishanganj district on Thursday (August 23, 2012). A large crowd reached the station to see the Red Ribbon Express which is comprising three bogies with audio-visual and print material about sensitisation and awareness among people about HIV/AIDS patients and another for awareness about non-communicable diseases. The train will pass through 17 stations in 16 districts in the state in the next two months, told the Bihar Health Minister Ashwani Chaube.
Bihar AIDS Control Society (BACS) Project Director Sanjeev Kumar Sinha said district magistrates and civil surgeons of district hospitals have been entrusted with making the journey of the Red Ribbon Express a success. A district-level committee has been formed and four IEC mobile vans would campaign on HIV/AIDS, he said. Sinha said there were about 50,000 AIDS/HIV patients in Bihar of which 12,000 were being treated at present.
More than treatment, such patients needed to be treated with care and sensitivity by their families, neighbours and society in seeking treatment of the disease without fear of ostracisation, he said. Sinha said facilities and medicines were available at the Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART) centres in the state. The state government has taken up with the Centre to seek transport allowance for patients in rural areas visiting ART centres, he said.
