Hyderabad, India: A minister in Andhra Pradesh, the state that has the country's largest number of HIV cases, has adopted two boys infected with the virus after their parents died due to AIDS.

M. Mareppa, minister for minor irrigation works in Andhra Pradesh, said on Wednesday he took the decision after hearing that Veeraswamy, 6, and his brother Prasad, 4 did not have anything to eat after their parents' died.

"I have organised to send them to a residential school for the poor and also registered as their guardian and foster father," he told Reuters. The boys' street-vendor father and mother died last week.

Andhra Pradesh accounts for 1.5 million of India's 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, which according to the United Nations, is the world's highest case load.

Mareppa has already adopted five other HIV-infected children who have lost their parents. All the children belong to Mareppa's home district of Kurnool, about 225 km southwest of Hyderabad.

Several cases of discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients have been reported in India in recent months, especially of schools turning away infected children.

In September last year, a man with full-blown AIDS in eastern India was stoned by villagers, who were scared he would spread the HIV infection. The 35-year-old man died later of his injuries.