Monday, January 4, 2010

US HIV/AIDS immigration ban lifted

Recently we wrote about President Obama’s decision to overturn the 22-year-old ban on travel and immigration to the U.S. by HIV-positive people. Today the new rules come into force. You can read the BBC’s report on the issue here.

The ban was imposed at the height of a global panic about the disease at the end of the 1980s.

It put the US in a group of just 12 countries, also including Libya and Saudi Arabia, that excluded anyone suffering from HIV/Aids.

The BBC’s Charles Scanlon, in Miami, says that improving treatments and evolving public perceptions have helped to bring about the change.

Rachel Tiven, head of the campaign group Immigration Equality, told the BBC that the step was long overdue.

“The 2012 World Aids Conference, due to be held in the United States, was in jeopardy as a result of the restrictions. It’s now likely to go ahead as planned,” she said.

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