U.S. Ends Ban On HIV-Positive Travelers

AIDS Experts Urge Countries To Follow U.S. Lead By Erasing HIV Travel Restrictions

(AP)  AIDS experts praised the United States on Tuesday for ending its two-decade ban on HIV-positive people entering the country, and said travel restrictions by dozens of other countries are hurting efforts to control the epidemic.

U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation last week repealing a rule that prevented HIV-infected immigrants, students and tourists from receiving U.S. visas without special waivers. The ban also held up U.S. adoptions of children with HIV. Seven nations still have an outright ban on entry for HIV-infected people, and more than 65 impose some travel restrictions on the estimated 33 million people worldwide living with the virus.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, whose native South Korea denies entry to HIV-infected visitors, said the restrictions "should fill us with shame" in his opening address to the AIDS conference in Mexico City, which brings together 25,000 officials, scientists and activists this week.

Ron MacInnis, director of policy for the International AIDS Society that organized the conference, said travel restrictions often force people with HIV to hide or even lie about being infected.

"It's blatantly discriminatory to single out people with HIV. It's stupid and ridiculous," said MacInnis, who has HIV. "These restrictions are really impeding our ability to control HIV and AIDS."

Many nations adopted their restrictions during the 1980s when mass hysteria surrounded the virus and little was known about how it is spread.

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said there is no public health justification for the bans, and that they undermine efforts to control the epidemic by painting it as a foreign problem that can be curbed by controlling borders. UNAIDS formed an international task force in January to work toward their elimination.

The European AIDS Treatment Group says seven nations ban people with HIV from entering: Brunei, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. About 30 deport foreigners once they are discovered to have the virus, including North Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hungary, Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Russia, the group says.

Last year, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he opposes letting HIV-positive people immigrate, triggering anger among health care workers.

For now, the country allows HIV-infected visitors but requires testing for those intending to work as doctors, dentists or nurses, and for sub-Saharan Africans over 14 wanting to study, a spokesman for Australia's immigration department said. It can also reject migrants for fear they will run up large medical bills.

Developed countries say the travel restrictions keep them from having to swallow the costs of caring for HIV-positive people from poorer nations. But activists say studies show that isn't occurring on a significant scale in countries without restrictions.

The AIDS virus is spread through bodily fluids via sexual intercourse, blood transfusions, the sharing of needles and in rare cases, breast-feeding. Activists say the best way to control the epidemic is by raising awareness so people are tested for the virus and take precautions.

The international travel bans have complicated the work of prominent AIDS activists, including Shaun Mellors of South Africa, a former co-chair of the UNAIDS international task force.

He has been banned from entering the United States since 1994, when he traveled to New York to participate in the Gay Games and told a reporter he had refused to declare his HIV-positive status or ask for a special waiver.

"I told him 'no' because I thought it was stupid and discriminatory," said Mellors, 43.

When U.S. immigration authorities saw the article, Mellors said his name was put into the U.S. consular alert system as someone who obtained a visa fraudulently. When he passed through the United States on his way to Canada, authorities found him in the system and deported him.

He is unsure whether he will be allowed back into the United States now that Bush has repealed the ban. But he hopes other nations will now be motivated to ease their restrictions.

"It's been humiliating to constantly be classified as a criminal," he said. "I think it's great that America has finally seen the light."

China has promised to lift its ban, though it has not said when, and nations from Russia to the United Arab Emirates are revising their policies, said Craig McClure, executive director of the International AIDS Society.

"The U.S. always sets the tone," McClure said. "This is huge not only for the people who have not been able to enter the U.S., but finally these laws might be overturned throughout the world."

[usclimey]

If the disease is not present in a society it makes sense to prevent contact with infected areas of the world. Once the society has the disease there is no longer any reason for isolation.

[avigil2]

Ask yourself this: What are the chances that a foreigner will infect me with the virus? Practically ZERO! This policy is absolutely ludicrous. Be cautious of who you sleep with, foreigner or not. Geez!

[ejcspau]

Great. can''t close our boarders to anyone anymore. look what has happened to our "melting pot". Geez, let''s clean up this country and get back to what we started for. Yeah, most of our ancestors were from other countries, but come on! We can''t take care of ourselves and now we want people with AIDS to come in. Guess the government thinks survival of the fittest?

[lochlan-2009]

In the end, the odds are significantly high that someone in this country is going to get AIDS from someone previously not allowed to be here. So save all your heart wrenching PR comments for them.

[lewiston14]

Made me think back to my school days where I had to have contact with some over grown ape with open sores. Not today in this world with all this bunch bring over all these interesting bugs. Same goes with a pool. Never a public pool. I dont need to sit on a toilet seat for a week because of some dirty person whoes kid just took a dump in it.

[lewiston14]

They are not a sub class but lets look at the rules of having aids. There is actually only 2.
1 - You can transmit by other forms then s-ex
2 - At some point your going to die from it.
Unless something else kills you first there is no cure.

[excoachken]

The reality is that it "is all about bigotry." By the way the Bubonic plague is STILL around (even in some parts of the U.S.), but there is no "special law" to discriminate against people carrying it onto an airplane. "Common sense" is to take care of the unfortunate soul who catches this disease, not to make life more difficult for them!

[hypnotoad72]

Well, AIDS cases in the U.S. are going to go up significantly. Sorry to all you American citizens who become a statistic on this legislation.

Posted by lochlan
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In all fairness, how do you know that?

My gripe is about the potential of mixing different mutations of the virus, which in turn can very well create new strains that will be more difficult to contain. (it''s well documented so I''m not going to say what''s already been said.)

Plus, the disease is not transmitted solely via "sinful acts". Plenty of innocent people, who got it because someone else was a creep (infected parents, a "lover" who didn''t bother to tell, et cetera, et cetera), never mind the (albeit slight) risk of blood transfusions.

I''m sorry some people think they''re criminals because they have it. In ways, some of the ARE. Others are not, but the disease isn''t going to give a D A M N. Why should the rest of us be so politically correct, given what''s at stake?

How will letting in AIDS patients help find a cure? Are they all scientists? (I bet not.)

[hypnotoad72]

Oh. *** = S E X

[hypnotoad72]

Bigotry takes on many forms. Lighten up, that guy sitting next to you at work, who has been cheating on his wife for years and partied by "popping" a little Heroin while he was in college, is a greater chance to infect you than the 16 year old who got infected via rape, and happens to be sitting next to you on a flight to Chicago.

Posted by excoachke
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You''d whine the same thing during the glory days of the bubonic plague too, no doubt. There''s nothing bigoted about it. At all. It''s about common sense.

I''ll also agree; the bubonic plague was more easily spread. But in this day and age where cheap *** and drug use is rampant, with concepts of self-respect and respect-for-others down the drain, that doesn''t make AIDS any slower to spread. (Not to mention how adaptable and mutable the HIV virus is...)