A new hope?

Some of you may recall I blogged a while back about the fact that the USA was still a no go area for HIV+ individuals like myself since 1987 on the absurd premise that HIV still appears on their list of “dangerous and contagious” diseases which present a public health risk! I know, Go Figure!!

Well I am pleased to report that there is a new hope that these draconian restrictions on entry to the US for people with HIV will finally be removed when the US government indicated that it had completed a review of the removal of HIV from the list of communicable diseases that prevent myself, and many thousands of other HIV+ individuals entry to the supposed "Land of the Free".

Once the regulations have been removed, HIV will no longer be a bar for entry to the US for visitors or migrants and I may just manage to get back to Las Vegas and win back the shit load of cash I lost o the poker & Blackjack tables in 2003!

Before I can think about packing my cases and heading off there, there now be two periods of consultation, which could see the ban finally removed by late 2009! Can I get a WooHoo!?

Joking aside once these consulations are complete it now looks increasingly likely that the regulations prohibiting entry to the US for HIV+ travellers and migrants will be removed. The Office of Management and Budget said that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could move forward with the revision of the regulations.

So far, a victory for common sense. However:

These revised regulations have not yet been published. Once they are, there is then a lengthy and complex period of consultation and review. Firstly they will be open for public consultation for 45 days. The regulations can be amended by the Department of Health and Human Services to reflect comments. The revised regulations will then have to be returned to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. A further period of review lasting between 30 and 60 days will then follow, after which the revised regulation will come into effect.

Being the eternal optimist that I am, I and thinking Christmas in Vegas, Summer in Sanfrancisco and the Fall in New England watching the leaves turn golden in the cool autumn breeze! A dream I have been harbouring every since I was diagnosed in September 2007! Hell, I may even be ablt to spend my 40th Birthday out there!

However, until this lengthy & protracted process is complete, individuals with HIV will still need to obtain a lengthy and soewhat degrading visa to legally enter the USA.

I live in hope!

United States of America - No go for HIV+ individuals

Since 1987, the United States has imposed a travel ban on HIV-infected individuals entering the country as visitors or immigrants on the absurd premise that HIV appears on their list of “dangerous and contagious” diseases which present a public health risk.

The law specifically prohibits foreigners from immigrating or obtaining a travel visa to the United States. On July 30, 2008, President Bush (Yeah Bush of all people!)signed into law a five-year, $48 billion (£32.5 billion)bill to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world as well as to lift the ban on HIV+ travelers entering the USA.

However, the ban has still not actually been lifted and HIV/AIDS activists, who at first praising the Bush administration are becoming frustrated and impatient for an actual removal of the ban.

HIV/AIDS activists originally declared the ban to be unnecessary and unfair. The ban itself was not written into US law until 1993, during the Clinton Administration. This legislation made HIV the only specific medical condition mentioned as grounds for inadmissibility to the US. Activists have long argued that the ban was just another in a long string on US inconsistencies on HIV/AIDS policy. Many HIV professionals stated that the ban was not consistent with the international leadership role the United States has taken with PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief). Experts at the International AIDS conference last Autumn were full of praise for the new legislation on lifting the travel ban. However, since then very little has been done to actually lift the ban. Apparently, in order to do so, the Department of Health and Human Services must write a new rule, submit it for public comment, and finalise it. At the end of his tenure as President, some 58 Democrats submitted a letter to President Bush urging “swift action” on the issue.

Due to the ban, no major AIDS conference has been held on US soil since 1993 as no activists or researchers infected with the virus may enter the country without embarking on a complicated waiver process.

I was reading that in 1991, some 40,000 Haitian political refugees fled to the US. Of these refugees, 158 were detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba due to the HIV ban. For nearly twenty months, Guantanamo Bay hosted these 158 political refugees, due to either being HIV-positive, or a relative of one of the positive refugees.

Despite the fact Bush had signed the bill mandating removal of the ban into law, HIV remains on the list of “dangerous and contagious” diseases that may prevent entry into the United States. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security released a revised and “streamlined” process for obtaining a waiver, making it easier to obtain the necessary visa for postive indiviuals to enter the US. However, the Department of Heath and Human Services has still not removed HIV from the list of medical conditions which are grounds for exclusion from entering the country.

A study conducted in 2006 showed that of 1113 HIV positive survey respondents. 349 (31%) had traveled to the United States. Of those 349 that had traveled to the US, only 14.3% traveled with the mandatory waiver to obtain a travel visa. Many simply did not disclose their status. This study not only shows the inefficacy of the travel ban, but shows the harm presented to HIV+ individuals who desire to visit the United States. The study showed that patients on anti-retroviral therapy (212 patients) were more likely to go off their medication, increasing their chances of developing drug-resistant HIV strains or developing AIDS.

There are other countries around the world that, along with the US, maintain an archaic travel ban on people living with HIV. These countries are: Iraq, China, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Sudan, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Moldova, Russia, Armenia, and South Korea.

Given it's standing in the World should the United States still include itself amongst these countries in discriminating against people living with HIV?

We can just hope that the newly elected Obama Administration will take this somewhat contentsion bull by the horns and end the uneccessary discrimination of HIV+ people wishing to visit the USA.

At the risk of highjacking the Obama sound bite that helped him ride the crest of a wave to his historic victory - It's time for change! It is also time for hope. A hope that so many have in Barack Obama and his first term in office.