Haryana is on the rise and so is AIDS in the state. The number of HIV positive patients in the state has more than doubled in 2007. A worried government has taken major steps to curb the disease, including opening of 24 STD clinics, besides running target intervention programmes as a preventive measure. Yamunanagar is the only district where increase in number of AIDS patients has been less than the figure of previous year, whereas rise in the number of patients in Mahendergarh had been more than six-fold. As many as 40 new HIV-positive patients have been registered here against the figure of six in 2006. But, still, Mahendergarh has the minimum number of HIV infected patients in the state. Rohtak, the home district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has got the dubious distinction of topping the chart, as the number of patients in Rohtak alone is 50 per cent of the total number of patients discovered to be HIV infected during 2007. Figures placed on the table of the House in the state Assembly revealed that 1,378 patients had been found to be infected with the deadly disease in the district, out of a total number of 2,746 patients registered at various clinics during 2007. The total number of AIDS patients touched the figure of 4,510 in the past two years. The number of HIV infected patients had been 855 in 2006, but with 1,378 more found to be infected, the total figure of AIDS patients in the district touched 2,233 in the past two years. Rohtak is followed by Jind and Hisar, where 156 and 146 new patients had been discovered in 2007. Health authorities are baffled over the increasing number of AIDS patients in Rohtak, but attribute it to the number of migrants in the district. "Another significant fact is the incidence of HIV infected patients had been high in the district and hence the number had been supplemented accordingly,' said a senior officer. But the argument hardly holds water as Panipat, which also has a high number of migrants, has only 78 patients. Number of patients in Jhajjar increased from 25 to 59 (total 84), Karnal 53 to 104 (total 157) and Kurukshetra from 58 to 130 (total 188).