The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) initiated a program Tuesday featuring AIDS-related knowledge publicity to train passengers aiming to raise migrant people's awareness of HIV/AIDS.

Peng Peiyun, president of the RCSC said in Beijing on Tuesday at the program's inauguration ceremony that the RCSC staff are going to offer consultation services and hand out AIDS-prevention brochures on trains and at railway stations of the nation's major routes, telling passengers the ABCs of HIV/AIDS prevention.

Tuesday morning at the program's inauguration ceremony at the Beijing Railway Station, experts from the Beijing You'an Hospital, a renowned medical institution dedicated to infectious diseases, and staff from China's Railway Epidemic Prevention Center gave AIDS-related information to passers-by.

At the ceremony student volunteers wearing smart red ribbons hand-knitted by HIV-positives in southwest China's Yunnan Province disseminated brochures depicting how to prevent HIV in vivid cartoons.

Chinese well-known comedian Hou Yaowen was appointed "Railway AIDS-Prevention Ambassador".

Yang Zuyao, a student volunteer majoring in preventive medicine at the Beijing University, felt more than happier.

"What I have learned in school can greatly contribute to my volunteer work in AIDS prevention," she said.

Yang was among dozens of the Beijing University students participating in the inauguration event.

The latest statistics from China's Ministry of Railways (MOR) shows China's railway network saw more than 1.1 billion passengers in 2004.

China's Vice Health Minister Wang Longde said Tuesday that China's 120-million migrants, who are facing threats of HIV/AIDS due to the lack of education and health knowledge, should be regarded as a high-risk group of HIV/AIDS infection and should get more attention and control efforts from the government.

Sources said in Beijing on Tuesday that the RCSC will join the MOR staff to ride the international train from Beijing to Inner Mongolia's Erenhot, north China's port city bordering Mongolia, to spread AIDS-related knowledge on the train and participate in Erenhot's local AIDS prevention promotion event there with the Mongolia Red Cross.

By the end of September, China had an cumulative 135,630 cases of HIV involving 31,143 AIDS patients and 7,773 fatalities.

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2005)