Protesters at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur on Wednesday. Picture by Prakash Kumar

Muzaffarpur, Feb. 9: Agitated over the unavailability of medicines for over a month, around 150 HIV patients went on the rampage at the anti-retroviral therapy centre at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) this morning.

The patients stormed into the office of the SKMCH superintendent, G.K. Thakur, to apprise him of their plight. Later, they staged a dharna on National Highway-77 for over two hours, throwing the traffic out of gear.

The National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) had started the anti-retroviral therapy centre at SKMCH in 2003 for HIV-affected patients of north Bihar. The ailing people were running from pillar to post from last month for medicines. But their efforts went in vain because of acute shortage of drugs.

The HIV positive patients lost their patience today and went on the rampage. The ruckus started at 11am and continued till 1pm.

Sunil Kumar, the in-charge of the anti-retroviral therapy centre, said he had requested Naco and the state government to provide the drugs at the earliest. But his requests allegedly fell on deaf ears.

An angry HIV positive patient of Narkatiyaganj in East Champaran district told The Telegraph: “The employees of the anti-retroviral therapy centre harassed me. They refused to give me drugs.”

Kumar said: “I tried my best to pacify the patients who created a ruckus at SKMCH today to protest against the inordinate delay in providing them medicines.”

The patients, not satisfied with the explanation of Kumar, went to the office of Thakur for a solution to their problem.

Finally, they blocked NH-77, connecting Muzaffarpur with Sitamarhi.