Obama to end 22 year ban on HIV infected people entering the country

The US is to end its 22-year ban on people with HIV entering the country, President Barack Obama has confirmed.

Mr Obama made the announcement as he extended funding for an act that provides HIV/Aids related health care.

"If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/Aids, we need to act like it," Mr Obama said.

The US is one of only about a dozen countries barring entry on HIV status. The ban is expected to be lifted at the beginning of 2010.

'End the stigma'

Mr Obama confirmed the move as he signed the Ryan White HIV/Aids Treatment Extension Act.

Mr Obama said the entry ban had been "rooted in fear rather than fact".

He said: "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 with HIV from entering our own country.

"On Monday, my administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban effective just after the New Year."

Mr Obama added: "It will also take an effort to end the stigma that has stopped people from getting tested, that has stopped people from facing their own illness and that has sped the spread of this disease for far too long."

The process to lift the ban had begun under the administration of George W Bush.

Click to expand...

The Ryan White Act is named after a 13-year-old boy who contracted the virus via blood transfusion and helped educate Americans about the disease until his death in 1990 aged 18.

The act helps about 500,000 people, many on low incomes, by providing treatment and support.

HIV was added in 1987 to the list of diseases disqualifying people from entering the US.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama to lift HIV entry ban soon

Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The ban on HIV/AIDS-infected visitors and immigrants entering the United States will be repealed after the New Year, President Barack Obama announced Friday.

Click to expand...

Good move. This ban, begun 22 years ago, was done out of ignorance, and I, for one, and glad to see common sense take over.

Article is here.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

danarhea said:

Good move. This ban, begun 22 years ago, was done out of ignorance, and I, for one, and glad to see common sense take over.

Article is here.

Click to expand...

I disagree. We shouldn't let those who have dangerous diseases into this country,especially if there is the chance that we will end up picking up the tab on his medical care/treatments.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

Common sense is a very uncommon commodity as they say and there used to rules to keep anyone with a transmittable disease out of the country, If we look back to Patient zero in the Aids story we come to a Gay French airline attendant. Or at least that was the story way back when. The rules would not have kept him out as no one knew he was infected or even that HIV/AIDs was around. In today's world the concern needs to be highly communicable diseases that if unleashed on the population here or anyplace in the world could spread death into the millions before you could get a handle on it. Ebola for example could be carried on a plane from anyplace and in a manner of hour be spread from one side of the world to another. It makes suicide bombing seem almost insignificant in comparison.
I understand the Japanese are going to be using a device to detect people with a fever at a distance and restrict their travel by air. That seems like a great idea because it's not intrusive and could save millions of lives.
AIDS is dangerous only to one person at a time and then only to stupid people who have unprotected sex with strangers. This ban was unenforceable any way. How many people with AIDS look sick or wear a sign saying "I have AIDS".

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

The stupidity with this administration piles up so fast, you gotta have wings to stay above it.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

apdst said:

The stupidity with this administration piles up so fast, you gotta have wings to stay above it.

Click to expand...

I take it you did not read Councilman's post.
I now think a key word is "very".

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

AIDS is already prevolent in America, a little to late to stop it from coming here.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

ScottD said:

AIDS is already prevolent in America, a little to late to stop it from coming here.

Click to expand...

What if this ban lift allows new strains to enter the country? What if there's an airborne strain lurking around somewhere and it comes, here?

jamesrage said:

I disagree. We shouldn't let those who have dangerous diseases into this country,especially if there is the chance that we will end up picking up the tab on his medical care/treatments.

Click to expand...

How did this ban do anything to stop them? Even if this would be a good proposal in theory, it was an abject failure in practice.

Think about it - how on earth are they checking HIV status at the border? They're not. The only possible effect this law could have would be to keep responsible people who had a history of treatment or were otherwise honest from getting into the country. Those who refused to get treatment or lied would still be allowed in.

Councilman said:

This ban was unenforceable any way. How many people with AIDS look sick or wear a sign saying "I have AIDS".

Click to expand...

Exactly.

apdst said:

What if this ban lift allows new strains to enter the country? What if there's an airborne strain lurking around somewhere and it comes, here?

Click to expand...

What if swine flu mutates with chicken pox and we all get really sick AND itchy?

Again, how do you think anything will be different now than it was before? The old rule was absolutely ineffective - people with HIV have been entering freely for decades.

RightinNYC said:

How did this ban do anything to stop them? Even if this would be a good proposal in theory, it was an abject failure in practice.

Click to expand...

It doesn't mean we should swing the door wide open for them. A medical exam should be required of anyone seeking entry into this country,maybe put a a doctor in our embassies and submit dna and blood samples to labs in our country and if those come up clean then they should be allowed a visa and if they do not come up clean for any dangerous diseases then to bad no entry for them. I do not expect it to stop everyone who has aids or some other dangerous disease from coming into this country, I just do not think the gate should be wide open just a because a few might be able to sneak through.

Think about it - how on earth are they checking HIV status at the border?

Click to expand...

Which is why is support putting more border guards on the border and possibly militarizing it.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

Councilman said:

This ban was unenforceable any way. How many people with AIDS look sick or wear a sign saying "I have AIDS".

Click to expand...

Which is why you make anyone wishing to come into this country get a medical exam and test at approved locations and then they pass we give them a visa. No visa no entry

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

apdst said:

The stupidity with this administration piles up so fast, you gotta have wings to stay above it.

Click to expand...

Geez. Don't you ever read the links? Obama is merely finishing something that began with the Bush administration, but I don't hear you bashing Bush over this.

BTW, Bush was right.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

jamesrage said:

It doesn't mean we should swing the door wide open for them. A medical exam should be required of anyone seeking entry into this country,maybe put a a doctor in our embassies and submit dna and blood samples to labs in our country and if those come up clean then they should be allowed a visa and if they do not come up clean for any dangerous diseases then to bad no entry for them. I do not expect it to stop everyone who has aids or some other dangerous disease from coming into this country, I just do not think the gate should be wide open just a because a few might be able to sneak through.

Which is why is support putting more border guards on the border and possibly militarizing it.

Click to expand...

jamesrage said:

Which is why you make anyone wishing to come into this country get a medical exam and test at approved locations and then they pass we give them a visa. No visa no entry

Click to expand...

This just sounds like an absolutely horrible idea. You're going to make everyone who wants to come in to visit get a medical exam?

If you had to get a medical exam every time you visited Europe/Canada/Mexico, how often would you go?

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

RightinNYC said:

This just sounds like an absolutely horrible idea. You're going to make everyone who wants to come in to visit get a medical exam?

Click to expand...

Yes.It doesn't have to have to be for every visit but like maybe once every six months or a year.

If you had to get a medical exam every time you visited Europe/Canada/Mexico, how often would you go?

Click to expand...

If I wanted to go Europe, Mexico or some other country then yes I would submit to a medical exam. You seem to be under the impression that there countries have to let people in,this is false. No country is under any obligation to let anyone cross its border.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

danarhea said:

Geez. Don't you ever read the links? Obama is merely finishing something that began with the Bush administration, but I don't hear you bashing Bush over this.

BTW, Bush was right.

Click to expand...

Bush was wrong. The stupidity of the Dems in Congress and this administration piles up so high, you need wings to stay above it. There!

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

jamesrage said:

Yes.It doesn't have to have to be for every visit but like maybe once every six months or a year.


If I wanted to go Europe, Mexico or some other country then yes I would submit to a medical exam. You seem to be under the impression that there countries have to let people in,this is false. No country is under any obligation to let anyone cross its border.

Click to expand...

I'm not saying they have to, I'm saying that tourism and business are good things. We should not be discouraging them, which is what this policy would do.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

apdst said:

What if this ban lift allows new strains to enter the country? What if there's an airborne strain lurking around somewhere and it comes, here?

Click to expand...

1. We would have already known about it.
2. Other countries would have already known about it.
3. Viruses don't work the way you think they do.

This message is brought you by people who have any understanding of what AIDS/HIV is.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

danarhea said:

Geez. Don't you ever read the links? Obama is merely finishing something that began with the Bush administration, but I don't hear you bashing Bush over this.

BTW, Bush was right.

Click to expand...

Oh brother. :roll:

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

American said:

Oh brother. :roll:

Click to expand...

Great response, very compelling.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

Hatuey said:

1. We would have already known about it.
2. Other countries would have already known about it.
3. Viruses don't work the way you think they do.

This message is brought you by people who have any understanding of what AIDS/HIV is.

Click to expand...

We didn't know about HIV/AIDS until it showed up in Western nations. It's not impossible that other strains exist, that we don't know if.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

apdst said:

We didn't know about HIV/AIDS until it showed up in Western nations.

Click to expand...

And what does that have to do with my statement? If we were in 1980 when medical technology by modern standards was still in the dark ages yes, you would have a point and the possibility of the virus being airborne would be a concern. However this requires faith in A) hasn't already mutated in America and B) We would have no way of detecting an airborne version of AIDS for a while(highly unlikely).

We live in an age where there are dozens of labs in almost every country dedicated almost exclusively to mapping new strains of EVERY decease we know of. You simply can't develop a new strain of any decease today and keep it a secret to most populations for too long. Just look at SARS or even Swine Flu. How long do you think it took between the appearance of any of these and it's detection? Weeks? Months? If AIDS were to become airborne by the time it did, it would have already A) been detected by scientists in the particular country or B) have found it's way to a country that would have the means to detect it.

There are programs being run in Africa and pretty much every other country to detect the transfer of AIDS from parents to newborns, programs dedicated to finding out the rates of infected among children, new infection rates etc. Do you think if airborne AIDS were to show up tomorrow by the weeks end we wouldn't already have at least one case of somebody who didn't have AIDS on Saturday morning but did on Sunday night without any exchange of bodily fluids? The claim that we shouldn't let AIDS patients in because of the possibility of an airborne version of the virus simply has no real merit.

It's not impossible that other strains exist, that we don't know if.

Click to expand...

Who said it was?

If everybody started contracting AIDS without having sex, don't you think that'd cause a world-wide panic where almost every single person in a civilized country would know within hours or at the most days?

Smoke[MaxX] said:

If everybody started contracting AIDS without having sex, don't you think that'd cause a world-wide panic where almost every single person in a civilized country would know within hours or at the most days?

Click to expand...

I can't even begin to imagine how quickly we'd find out about an airborne AIDS strain. I mean people catch AIDS now and know by what in 1980 would seem like seconds, there are literally hundreds of America and European teams and organizations both governmental and private in African testing millions JUST for that reason. Keeping such knowledge secret would be impossible for more then a few days tops.

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

apdst said:

We didn't know about HIV/AIDS until it showed up in Western nations. It's not impossible that other strains exist, that we don't know if.

Click to expand...

Which, if you knew anything about AIDS, could be brought in by anyone who has been exposed 3 weeks earlier and would not test positive. Some people might not test positive 2-3 months later. Maybe we need to have a rule that says you can only come into the US if you have not had sex within the last 3 months. Good enough for you?

Re: Obama to lift HIV/AIDS travel ban

tjinta ibis said:

Which, if you knew anything about AIDS, could be brought in by anyone who has been exposed 3 weeks earlier and would not test positive. Some people might not test positive 2-3 months later. Maybe we need to have a rule that says you can only come into the US if you have not had sex within the last 3 months. Good enough for you?

Click to expand...

Watch it. You just gave the religious nuts a talking point :mrgreen: