The United States of America has finally lifted its HIV immigration ban - 22 years after it was sensationally introduced.
President Obama said the ban was not compatible with US plans to be a leader in the fight against the disease. The new rules come into force today and the US plans to host a bi-annual global HIV/AIDS summit for the first time in 2012, report the BBC.
The ban was imposed at the height of a global panic about the disease at the end of the 1980s.
Obama has described the 22-year-old policy as a "decision rooted in fear rather than fact.”
Lisa Power, Head of Policy at Terrence Higgins Trust, said "It's ridiculous that for over 20 years people living with HIV have been banned from entering the US simply because of a medical condition. Removing the ban is long overdue and we congratulate the US Government on seeing economic and medical sense. Terrence Higgins Trust and many others have campaigned against the ban since it was introduced. Blanket entry bans have no justification on public health grounds and only increase stigma. We hope other countries with similar bans in place will now remove them too."
THT was part of the UNAIDS International Task Force on Travel Restrictions, which was a crucial element in international lobbying on this issue. THT staff living with HIV have, in the past, been refused entry to the US because of the ban. In 2012 the World AIDS Conference is to be held in the USA after many years absence, in recognition of the lifting of the ban.
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.
In October, President 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."