Assam govt to bear travel expenses of HIV/AIDS patients

Guwahati, Dec 1 (UNI) The Assam government today announced that transport expenses of poor HIV positive patients coming to anti-retroval therapy centres would be borne by the government, besides the already available free-of-cost medicines.

Moreover, it was also pumping in additional money to blood banks so that it can install latest technology to ensure that infected blood is not transfused.

The announcement was made during a function organized on the occasion of World AIDS Day, organized by the Assam State AIDS Control Society, today.

Addressing the function, state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the disease had been contained to a great extent following a slew of measures and the scenario was also fast improving at the national level.

He maintained that the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS remained the greatest hurdle in fighting the disease and added that rapid urbanization and ignorance had led to fast spread of the disease.

State Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, also addressing the function, announced that anti-retroval therapy for HIV/AIDS patients would be available in Silchar Medical College from today, besides the ones existing in Guwahati and Dibrugarh medical colleges.

He also said that the state government would allocate funds from its own resources to meet the travelling expenses to anti-retroval therapy centres for needy patients.

He also disclosed that the state government has allocated Rs 4 crore for equipping the blood banks with latest technology so as to stop the spread of the disease through blood transfusion.

The Health Minister informed that the process for identification of persons with HIV and AIDS was on and 2,026 persons afflicted with the virus have been found out of the 22,000 blood screenings done so far.

Other dignitaries from various walks of life also participated in the function.

UNI