LAGOS, 21 July 2008, Daily Champiopn - The two-decade old ban on people with HIV visiting or immigrating to the United States may end soon through a Senate bill aimed at fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas of the world.
In a move aimed at squashing the law that places travel ban to the country of People Living with AIDS (PLWAIDS), two senators are sponsoring a bill aimed at repealing the ban.
Senators John Kerry and Gordon Smith in their bill before the Congress are trying to repeal the ban, first implemented in 1987 and confirmed by Congress in 1993. The two have also attached their measure to legislation, which the Senate may pass this week and which would provide $50 billion over the next five years to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas.
Presently, the United States remains one of a dozen countries that also include Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia, which banned travel and immigration for HIV-positive people.
"There's no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease," Kerry said Tuesday at a speech to the Center for Strategic & International Studies HIV and AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu or the Ebola virus have an easier time than those with HIV when it comes to applying for visas," he said.
According to Kerry, Democratic senator representing Massachusetts, 'even China, recently changed that policy, deciding it was time to move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk reaction to people with HIV."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807211127.html