'Red Ribbon Express' Spreads AIDS Awareness in North East India

The 'Red Ribbon Express', the world's largest social mobilisation campaign against HIV/AIDS, is currently on a nationwide trip to spread awareness about the disease.

Flagged off on December 1, 2007, from New Delhi, the Red Ribbon Express traveled through the Northeast recently.

In Jorhat and Kohima, people showed a keen interest in understanding the problem of AIDS and its deadly impact.

Whether you call them onlookers or enlightened citizens, they were there as the Red Ribbon Express chugged into the Mariani Railway Station in Jorhat District.

With the North East being highly sensitive and greatly affected by AIDS, the awareness campaign has acquired a special meaning.

Three brightly coloured yellow and red buses entered Nagaland capital Kohima with the slogan of 'Uniting India against AIDS.

India has roughly 2.5 million people infected with HIV, less than half the number of cases that previous studies estimated.

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An earlier U.N. study had estimated 5.7 million HIV cases, which would have been the highest total in the world.

But as per the latest available data, India, which has a population of 1.1 billion, has fewer HIV cases than South Africa and Nigeria.

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Source-ANI
SRM/L