Though India gives free HIV treatment to its positive citizens, the vast distances between rural treatment clinics and those in need help fuel the country’s rising HIV rate, Reuters India reports (in.reuters.com, 6/3).

According to the article, many HIV-positive people give up on their treatment regimens because they must ride crowded, often unsanitary trains for hours to reach the treatment centers.

“There’s no seat and I am very weak,” said one 30-year-old HIV-positive man, who says he must borrow money from his family to take the train to Delhi.

Reuters reports that there are 147 antiretroviral therapy centers in the country, but some states are better served than others.