US: HIV Traveler Entry Ban Finally Lifted

**MustavaMond** · 11-11-2009, 10:46 AM

Gay City News > US HIV Entry Ban Finally Lifted by Obama Administration Regulation

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The 1984 reaction to the late Ryan White when he was a 12-year-old public school student in Indiana was of a piece with the ban, beginning three years later, on entry into the US by HIV-infected foreign visitors. US HIV Entry Ban Finally Lifted by Obama Administration Regulation

Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009 5:28 PM CST
BY PAUL SCHINDLER

More than 15 months after Congress repealed a 1993 law that required that HIV be included on a list of health conditions that prevents foreign visitors from entering the United States, the Obama administration on November 2 published a regulation that will finally remove it from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) entry prohibitions.

Visitors with HIV were originally barred from traveling into the US when the Reagan administration promulgated a regulation in 1987. At the behest of anti-gay warrior Jesse Helms, the late Republican US senator from North Carolina who often attached pet ideological causes to important pieces of legislation, the ban on entry by HIV-positive foreigners was codified in law six years later.

The vote last year to remove HIV from the list of disqualifying conditions came as part of the renewal of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The measure passed the House in April by a vote of 308–116, with the Senate following suit in an 80-16 vote in July 2008.

At that point, DHS stated it had begun work on revising its regulations to remove HIV, but by the end of the Bush administration it had succeeded only in streamlining the existing waiver process always available to some small number of HIV-positive visitors.

The action by the Obama administration finally completes the process initiated by last year’s congressional repeal.

In remarks during the October 30 signing ceremony for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, President Barack Obama nonetheless credited his predecessor with beginning the process of regulatory change.

“My administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban effective just after the New Year,” the president said, referring to the 60-day waiting period required before the regulation published November 2 can become effective. “Congress and President Bush began this process last year, and they ought to be commended for it.”

With the late Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, on hand, Obama said, “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. Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease — yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat… If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it… It's a step that will encourage people to get tested and get treatment, it's a step that will keep families together, and it's a step that will save lives.”

White was a 12-year-old public school student in Kokomo, Indiana, living with HIV when he was expelled because of his infection. That injustice focused the nation’s attention on the irrational fear of HIV then gripping the nation. After his death in April 1990, the nation’s first comprehensive federal treatment response to the AIDS epidemic was named in his honor.

**BobR** · 11-11-2009, 11:41 AM

AIDS is the first disease to ever become a civil rights issue. Until then, the approach incurable diseased was separation with compassion. That's not meanness, it's the protection of the public. Apparently political correctness is now more important than protecting public health.

**StrontiumDog** · 11-11-2009, 12:22 PM

A commonsense decision. Good. So few of those these days.

**Loy Toy** · 11-11-2009, 12:33 PM

^ Gotta agree with that!

So many unfortunate people have been afflicted with this horrible disease through no fault of their own and this is a great decision that will hopefully remove the social stigma associated with HIV/ Aids.

**Mr R Sole** · 11-11-2009, 12:56 PM

I feel that this is an important stage in trying to destigmatise this awful disease. Bloody late and draconian as it was. IMHO

If people were less likely to be scared of being persecuted, then more testing would take place. However unlike a Thai prostitute would be, I think more likely not to go around spreading the disease. Many people are infected with HIV and have no idea...the disease has a very long incubation period and may not show itself for 7-10yrs!!!! That's the bigger danger in my mind.

Why is everyone still petrified of this disease?
People that are infected are even able to have babies that are many times HIV free...
This is not a new disease, I believe that it has been around for many years more than suspected.. Just look and some of the ways that people die from it ...pneumonia, cancers etc....ring any bells...I believe that they just managed to find an underlying infection that brought on these other killers like cancer..

I have said this before and I'll say it again. If you get cancer depending whether they find it quickly or not your chances are generally slim to NONE....2wks - 2yrs maybe...got HIV 10-20yrs...with the right pills, diet and exercise.

I'll take HIV over cancer anyday...got no chance of curing cancer from what I can tell...at least they seem to be coming out with new pills and way to treat HIV.....

I'm leaning on the HIV side..

..Saw my old man die of lung cancer..took less than 8mths from detection.....

Anyhow we're all gona bite the bullet one day, so what does it matter what takes you.

As for being a horribly painful death....A guy who lived near us (Gee-up). Who my wife knew from when she was a baby died from HIV/AIDS and he didn't suffer at all comparison..in true thai style he was sent home from the hospital with crappy pain killers, which thankfully he didn't need to take too many and about 3weeks later he was dead the poor bugger. I also knew and spoke to him and he said he wasn't feeling too much pain....

My old man was basically drowning!!! Gee-up on the other hand didn't have the energy to walk but used to play with his young son on the floor and chat with his family...the day he died his family said to us he just said he was going to get some rest and that was that...I didn't ask what killed him in the end..he didn't look like skin and bones either...well not as bad as some of the pic's you see of HIV/AIDS victims...It was a sobering experience.

His family were really quite brave as they told many people where we lived that he had died from AIDS and yet many people came to do the Thai burial thing where you touch his hand whilst pouring water on them... No one seemed to be scared, bothered that he had died from AIDS and his funeral was packed out.

It was nice to see that people in that town weren't concerned about the stigma or anything silly like that.

**StrontiumDog** · 11-11-2009, 10:54 PM

Agree with what you wrote, but cures for certain cancers are coming...not for a few years, but some are already at a fairly advanced stage of development.

Lung cancer is a vile disease. It'll almost certainly get me. Sorry to hear you father went that way. Very unpleasant.

**Mr R Sole** · 19-11-2009, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Lung cancer is a vile disease. It'll almost certainly get me. Sorry to hear you father went that way. Very unpleasant.

You really are a very decent person. Thank you for that comment, sadly I'm stupid and will b no doubt joining my father on that slippery slope...
Smoke em' if you got em'

**StrontiumDog** · 19-11-2009, 12:34 PM

Me too mate...can't kick this addiction. Smoking is evil.

**blackgang** · 19-11-2009, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Me too mate...can't kick this addiction. Smoking is evil.

Yep, I said that all my life, started smoking when I was about 6 or so, and smoked everyday til I was put in the hospital at 73 years of age, told I would die if I lit another,, Might have been true, as I am now 76 and aint dead yet.
But ain't had a smoke since that day.

**Whiteshiva** · 19-11-2009, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by Mr R Sole

II have said this before and I'll say it again. If you get cancer depending whether they find it quickly or not your chances are generally slim to NONE....2wks - 2yrs maybe...got HIV 10-20yrs...with the right pills, diet and exercise.

I'll take HIV over cancer anyday...got no chance of curing cancer from what I can tell...at least they seem to be coming out with new pills and way to treat HIV.....

Absolute rubbish - the sooner you detect cancer in a patient, the higher the survival rate. Many types of cancers can be completely cured (e.g. for many forms of breastcancer and prostate cancer), and in other cases, the tumor growth can be stopped either by treatment or by itself. The mortality rate of most if not all cancers have been dropping steadily over the last few decades as new treatments have become available, and the medical profession is constantly coming up with new and better forms of treatment as well as new ways of detecting tumors in early stages of development, e.g. through blood tests.

HIV, on the other hand - no possible treatment available, and popping a daily cocktail of pills (with some fairly serious side-effects) for the rest of your life simply to avoid dying a slow agonizing death is not something I would recommend.

But, hey - it's your life - do as you wish.

**blackgang** · 19-11-2009, 02:52 PM

Yep, my youngest son was a heroin addict and got Aids from shared needles, and he died a very nasty death while eating handfuls of pills daily.
Not for me, I would just want out, which is what they say my oldest son, who was also a heroin addict, did when he checked POS for HIV.
Damn Glad I am an Alkie instead of a junky,, there go I, but for the grace of God.

Anyway I am glad that Mustavaclit can now go back to the states.

**Takeovers** · 19-11-2009, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

Absolute rubbish - the sooner you detect cancer in a patient, the higher the survival rate. Many types of cancers can be completely cured (e.g. for many forms of breastcancer and prostate cancer), and in other cases, the tumor growth can be stopped either by treatment or by itself. The mortality rate of most if not all cancers have been dropping steadily over the last few decades as new treatments have become available, and the medical profession is constantly coming up with new and better forms of treatment as well as new ways of detecting tumors in early stages of development, e.g. through blood tests.

All true but for many it is still a death sentence and it is not a pleasant death. We had a few in our family. None of them made it. But chances are better today.

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

HIV, on the other hand - no possible treatment available, and popping a daily cocktail of pills (with some fairly serious side-effects) for the rest of your life simply to avoid dying a slow agonizing death is not something I would recommend.

There is no cure available.
Treatment is available and getting better all the time. The last figure I heard is a survival time of 40 years if well treated. The side effects are also smaller than they used to be but still unpleasant to say the least.
The problem is that for many the prospects are not scary enough any more so they become complacent. Infection rates have picked up again because of that.

**Whiteshiva** · 19-11-2009, 04:37 PM

Originally Posted by Takeovers

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

HIV, on the other hand - no possible treatment available, and popping a daily cocktail of pills (with some fairly serious side-effects) for the rest of your life simply to avoid dying a slow agonizing death is not something I would recommend.

There is no cure available.

Absolutely correct - I meant cure, of course. Thanks for the correction.

**Davis Knowlton** · 19-11-2009, 04:40 PM

And the pity of it is that in most cases, both HIV and lung cancer are self-inflicted. (And before the shitstorm starts, I said MOST).

**Mr R Sole** · 19-11-2009, 04:40 PM

^^^ Very good point mate. Infection rates are sadly going up again complacency and apathy are major problems in this world.

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

the sooner you detect cancer in a patient, the higher the survival rate.

True, unfortunately many cancers return. I have personal experience pf family memebers and friends getting sick again!!!

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

Many types of cancers can be completely cured (e.g. for many forms of breastcancer and prostate cancer)

Again but never a sure thing..see my point above.

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

The mortality rate of most if not all cancers have been dropping steadily over the last few decades as new treatments have become available

Then how come cancer is still one of the biggest killers on our planet???

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

the medical profession is constantly coming up with new and better forms of treatment as well as new ways of detecting tumors in early stages of development, e.g. through blood tests.

The same has to be said for HIV/AIDS treatments..our friend only takes 2 pills a day and the doc's have told our mate that it'll be down to only 1 pills shortly.

So as for "absolute rubbish" I can't agree with that I'm afraid..but then that's the point of opinions and forums...discussion..

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

HIV, on the other hand - no possible treatment available, and popping a daily cocktail of pills (with some fairly serious side-effects) for the rest of your life simply to avoid dying a slow agonizing death is not something I would recommend.

**Mr R Sole** · 19-11-2009, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

self-inflicted.

How is HIV self inflicted???? Lung cancer caused by smoking I can understand that link...No one (in their right mind) would invite or try to increase their chances of contracting HIV, yes having sex without a condom puts you at a high risk. On the other hand should we all demand that before we enter into a serious relationship that all our partners and ourselves should have HIV tests?

Can't see too many people staying in the realtionship after that, clear or not...."hey baby I ain't going bareback and trying to have a baby until your ass has been tested"

Yes the more sensible and safest option, just can't see most people doing it that's all.

**Whiteshiva** · 19-11-2009, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by Mr R Sole;1236192[quote="Whiteshiva"

The mortality rate of most if not all cancers have been dropping steadily over the last few decades as new treatments have become available

Then how come cancer is still one of the biggest killers on our planet???
[/quote]
Well we've got to die of something, right?

Since few people die of bacterial infections, malnutrition, tuberculosis, etc in the rich world nowadays, and more people survive to an older age, at which time heart decease, strokes or cancer usually gets them. Combine that with a sedate lifestyle that is counterproductive to good health, exposure to smoke and other pollutants in the air, water or food.

But, you are more likely to survive from any type of cancer today than you were 20 years ago, and the odds just keep getting better. Getting cancer is not an automatic death sentence.

Thread: US: HIV Traveler Entry Ban Finally Lifted

Thread Tools

Display

US: HIV Traveler Entry Ban Finally Lifted

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

Posting Permissions