Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:36:1
David Goodhue - AHN Reporter
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A law signed under the Bush administration to lift a ban on HIV-positive visitors from entering the United States, got the go-ahead this week from the Obama administration.
President George W. Bush signed the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in July 2008. Part of the legislation was to remove the ban from statute and leave it up to the Department of Health and Human Services to decide whether HIV should stay on a list of communicable diseases that prohibit foreign nationals from entering the country.
Obama's Office of Management and Budget completed a review of the law this week, which allows it to become effective once it is published in the Federal Register for a 45-day comment period.
The Human Rights Campaign, a U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group, praised the decision in a statement.
"We are one important step closer to finally ending this discriminatory ban once and for all," Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign president, said in a press release. "This regulation is unnecessary, ineffective and lacks any public health justification."
The ban had been in place for 15 years.
Article © AHN - All Rights Reserved