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Latest update: 30/10/2009
- AIDS - Barack Obama - USA
Obama lifts ban on US entry for foreign HIV patients
The United States will put an end to a 22-year-old travel ban on foreign patients infected with the AIDS virus, President Barack Obama has announced, hailing the move as a step towards ending the stigma of the disease.
By News Wires (text)
REUTERS - President Barack Obama announced on Friday that a 22-year-old ban on allowing people infected with the AIDS virus into the United States will be lifted on Monday.
Obama made the announcement in signing an extension of the the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Act, which provides for education, prevention and treatment programs for U.S. HIV patients.
Obama said the ban was imposed 22 years ago when visitors to the United States were treated as a threat.
“We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic—yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country,” he said.
“If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it,” he said.
He said on Monday his administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban effective just after the first of 2010.
The AIDS virus infects 33 million people globally and around a million in the United States.
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Comments (2)
GREAT!
US is one of the most supportive countries on earth and this rule was not saying any good from you. Now, with all the information about ways of transmission of this virus, there was not necessary to keep this barrier for turists.
ban on HIV
THE US has made a good decision which had been long overdue. the ban was not only hampering the efforts to combat the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS But was also inhuman. having Hiv does not mean one is a lessor person, he enjoys rights just like any other person. hopefully other nations will learn from this good gesture of the USA. This latest development is in the interest of human rights.
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