Feds consider lifting two-decade-old ban on HIV-positive immigrants

For the past 22 years individuals testing postive for HIV were prohibited from traveling and immigrating to the U.S. Now the government is deciding whether that ban, which some say is unnecessary, should be lifted.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control  and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have proposed removing the ban, and are accepting public comments through Aug. 17.

Proposed key revisions to the law include no longer placing HIV infection on the list of “communicable disease of public health significance,” ending mandatory testing for HIV infection as a part of the U.S. Immigration screening process, and ending the required waiver for HIV infected individuals before entry into the U.S.

“We’re trying to end the stigma and the discriminatory practice for a disease that doesn’t warrant exclusion for coming into this country. We have to appreciate this is not a threat we face from abroad,” Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, told MSNBC.

“HIV is clearly a public health disease of significance. But in simply allowing in someone who’s HIV-positive, that individual doesn’t immediately pose a risk to the public.”

HIV is currently on a list with several other diseases that prohibit entry into the U.S. Some of those included are active tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy and gonorrhea. Sexually transmitted infections on this list are lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), chancroid, and granuloma inguinale. Foreigners can also be prohibited from entry to the country if they are infected with certain diseases during periods of outbreaks — for instance, the H1N1 influenza, most recently.

The rule change is being proposed a year after Congress voted to repeal 1987 restrictions on HIV-positive immigrants. The vote was a part of an overall AIDS reform measure proposed by then-Pres. George W. Bush.There are currently 12 countries that prohibit entry of HIV-positive immigrants — Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sudan and the U.S.

More than 1.1 million people in the U.S. are infected with HIV, and more than 250,000 are estimated to unknowingly have the disease. Although the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Iowa remains relatively low when compared to other states — as of Dec. 31, 2008, there were 2,045 such people in the state — Iowa has seen increasing numbers each year since statistics have been kept. In addition, the state estimates that there are an additional 500 to 625 individuals in the state who have the virus but are unaware of their status.

Although a diagnosis of HIV was initially considered a death sentence, the disease has become a manageable, chronic condition that can be controlled with drugs.