Though the state is classified as low prevalence with 0.3% of adults living with HIV/Aids, or around 135,000 people, eight out of its 38 districts have reported an infection rate of over 1%.

"It is poverty that is fuelling HIV in this state," said Bihar's Health Minister Chandra Mohan Rai, adding that actual numbers were probably higher because of poor surveillance techniques and the stigma attached to the disease.

More than 42% of Biharis live under the official poverty line against an all-India figure of 26%.

At a recent anti-Aids rally south of Patna, government and UN officials highlighted techniques to prevent infection to some 20,000 Biharis.

"Use condoms," Rai told the crowd.

Awareness posters show a man sitting next to his suitcase and waiting for a train. They read: "I know about Aids so I will stay true when I leave home for a different place."

Srivastava regrets the day he ignored that advice. Employed by a tractor company in Bangalore and the eastern state of Orissa, he returned to Bihar after he found he was HIV-positive.

The father of four is also suffering from tuberculosis, and his wife, who is HIV-free, kicked him out of their home earlier this month after arguments about his health.

"My wife's action really hurt me," he said, sitting hunched in a dinghy room where volunteers give him medicine. "We were supposed to be life partners." Reuters