Tamil Nadu - Vellore   

Red Ribbon Express in Katpadi

VELLORE: The Red Ribbon Express, an exhibition on rail organised by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK) to create awareness of AIDS all over the country, arrived at the Katpadi railway junction on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu inaugurated the exhibition on rail and other propaganda vehicles of the NYK at a function organised by the district administration, the NYK, the NACO and the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS) at the Katpadi station. He said that the Red Ribbon Express would halt at 180 stations throughout the country, including 19 in Tamil Nadu. It would cover a distance of 9,000 km in all States.

The exhibition would cover 50,000 villages and benefit 70 lakh people, including 10 lakh people in 5,000 villages in Tamil Nadu.

Supriya Sahu, Project Director, TANSACS, said that previously, HIV incidence was noticed more among the vulnerable groups such as truck drivers and commercial sex workers.

But now, HIV had spread to the general population as well.

More women had HIV than men. “We want to spread the message through women that housewives got HIV through their husbands without their knowledge. Everyone, especially women and the youth, should know how to prevent the spread of AIDS, since new cases accounted for more than 50 per cent of the infection among these groups,” she said.

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Red Ribbon Express in Katpadi

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