HIV/AIDS > HIV/AIDS
HHS Set to Lift HIV Travel Ban
by Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today July 6, 2009
WASHINGTON, July 6 -- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued regulations allowing foreigners with HIV to enter the country -- more than a year after Congress voted to remove a longstanding ban on infected visitors.
The 22-year-old rule prohibited nonimmigrant visas for people with a variety of communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDs.
Ever since Congress voted to impose the travel ban in 1987, the U.S. has been in the company of such states as Iraq, China, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Sudan in categorically refusing entry to people with HIV.
When President George W. Bush signed into law the bipartisan reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPAR) in July 2008, the travel ban was technically reversed.
But a year later, people were still being denied entry into the U.S. based on their HIV status, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) complained in a letter last week to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The HHS regulation, posted in the Federal Register on July 2, is the final step required to overturn the travel ban by removing HIV from the list of communicable diseases that make visitors ineligible for entry into the U.S.
Currently, people with a communicable disease on the "banned" list can pay $545 to apply for a travel ban waiver.
The Federal Register notice was lauded by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).
"We applaud the CDC for moving forward with the process to remove the nation's draconian restrictions denying people living with HIV entry into the U.S.," said Pat Daoust, MSN, RN, director of PHR's Health Action AIDS Campaign.
"It is well past time for the U.S. to enact HIV entry policies rooted in sound public health and human rights practices, and the nation's health professionals will speak out strongly in favor of the final adoption of the proposed rule," said Daoust.
The public has 45 days to comment on the Federal Register notice.