LONDON – Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) has congratulated the US government for lifting an entry ban on foreign nationals with HIV entering the country.
For the past 22 years, people who are HIV positive have needed a special waiver to visit, or travel through, the US but the requirement was being dropped from yesterday.
THT said some of its staff with HIV have, in the past, been refused entry to the US as a result of the policy. Lisa Power, THT head of policy, 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 . . . We hope other countries with similar bans in place will now remove them too.”
President Barack Obama announced last October that the ban would be lifted. “Twenty-two years ago, in a decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/Aids,” he said.
“Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease – yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat.” The 2012 World Aids Conference will be held in the US in recognition of the lifting of the ban. – (PA)