BANGALORE: Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas on Tuesday said the government would shortly launch ‘Start Yoga, Stop HIV’campaign to promote a healthy lifestyle. Expressing concern over the growing incidence of HIV and diabetes in the state, he said that India had second highest number of HIV patients in the world. Five districts in state recorded very high incidence of HIV. The number of HIV positive children in the state is around 68,000. Therefore this campaign aims to tackle their deteriorating lifestyle by introducing Yoga as a lifestyle practice, he informed. The minister was speaking after taking part in a demonstration of Yoga in Cubbon Park on Tuesday as a prelude to the International Conference on Yoga, Naturopathy and Arogya Expo 2012, scheduled in February by the Department of AYUSH.(Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy).
“Of the 68,000 HIV positive children in the state, 5,000 are orphans while another 3,000 have a single parent. In four districts of North Karnataka, there are about 14,000 HIV positive children. We have to rehabilitate all these children and integrate them with the mainstream,” added Ramdas.