After 22 years, the ban on HIV/AIDS patients travelling to the United States has ended. The controversial law was introduced at the peak of the AIDS epidemic under then President Ronald Reagan. The US was one of the few countries in the world to categorically refuse entry to people who were HIV positive.
"People with HIV are not a danger to public health. I just wanted to be able to visit my friends," says Jan Willem de Bruin of the Dutch gay rights organisation COC wholeheartedly. Mr De Bruin found the ban discriminatory. His American friends could travel back and forth to Europe without any problem, while a return visit called for a little inventiveness.
It was easy enough to get around the ban with a few tricks. For instance, by not saying you had an infectious disease on the infamous form at US immigration. It was much more difficult to get HIV inhibitors into the US, explains Mr De Bruin.
"There are people who decided to take a 'drug holiday'. They stopped taking medicine during that period. But that is not advisable because then the virus is not suppressed and there is a health risk. You could also send the medicine by post, but that became more difficult because of the powder letter scares. This year, I gave my pills to American friends to take home for me."
Leading role for US
The lifting of the ban is an important signal. President Barack Obama wants his country to take a leading role in combating HIV and AIDS across the world. In 2012, the country will even host a two-yearly international AIDS Conference. A meeting which the US missed out on for 22 years because of the restrictions. Very strange, thinks Mr De Bruin.
"We had eight years of Bill Clinton, but apparently even then the time was not ripe to change the law. It isn’t President Obama who takes the credit either. It all started during the last Bush administration. Even then there were huge discussions. Eventually, the Senate and the House of Representatives adopted the act and President Obama signed it. But it is strange that it took so long."
Transition period
In a country with hundreds of international airports and tens of thousands of customs officers, there is bound to be one who does not know the new instructions. Mr De Bruin does not expect people with HIV suddenly not to have any more problems when they try to get into the US as of 4 January. He is interested to hear the experiences of people who try to visit the US after this date.
"On the HIV association website there is plenty of information for people who are refused entry. One of the tips is to call in the help of Immigrations Equality, an American organisation which defends the rights of immigrants, if you happen to encounter a customs officer who has not read his instructions, they can help you."
And Mr De Bruin? He is planning to travel to New York in February. "By then everyone should know the new rules."
External Links:
Immigrations Equality
Office of National Aids Policy
HIV-association (also in English, French, Spanish and Portugese)
HIV/Aids in the United States
White House: Gearing Up for 2012 International AIDS Conference
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Even people who have hiv+ve must also start a new life in their own way as they want to live. They can't freshly start from any of the online dating sites available. These site made dating so easy than humans ever thought would be. Online dating has been common among teens these days widely and rapidly. Teens seem to prefer online chatting and after slowly to relationship, not only teens are using these kind of methods to hook up, but also divorced and widowed too.
I think it's a very bad idea to have HIV patients into the US.
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Though they're preventable, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are all on the rise in Chesterfield, mirroring trends around the region, across the state and nationwide. HIVlover.com is a online dating site for HIV singles. Rising STD rate sparks online dating sites.
Hiram, you are right about the disease and precautions, but your attitude towards patients, is not. We do take universal precautions in our hospital to protect patients and ourselves from any communicable disease.The HIV patient, when detected, undergoes a lots of counselling by the worker, doctor and psychologist, before he is released. The patient knows about the do's and don't's about interacting with the normal people of the society. The patient is under lots of pressure due to the incurability of the disease, fatality rate and moral stigma attached to it. So, if the family or the society isolates him, hates him, accuses him; it becomes a heavy burden for him to bear and he detriorates fast. The patients having loving support of family and society, bounce back easily into normal life though with lots of precautions. The ART for HIV is very effective these days and there are low fatalities. With awareness campaigns and acceptance into the society, HIV patients have become a productive part of the society. They are our loved ones, the parts of our family, we cannot cast them outside the walls of the society, as we casted lepers once. And you know: Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus, and Guru Nanak, all were particularly loving towards the lepers. They cured them, and stayed with them to teach the healthy people that love heals all.We do teach moral values to our children and youth, but still they get lost as sheep in the wild. And a good Shepherd does go to find the lost sheep, while keeping care of the rest of the herd. We cannot, by any way shun or hate our brethren because of that tiny virus, yes, but we do need to teach them restraint in a loving way. I wish you health always because falling sick in our society is very unfortunate; the disease doesn't kill as much as apathy does.
Unfortunately, STD rates soar worldwide!!! Use a condom to protect you yourself!!!!
A friend of mine who works for the largest STD dating == Positivefish.com ==(if I spell the site correctly) told me that the new subscribers have
increased 200% over 2008. Rising STD rate sparks online dating sites.
"Unfortunately, STD rates soar worldwide!!!" Unfortune (not favored by fortune) has to do with the rise or fall in STD throughout the world. If anything, stupidity, lack of self control, retalitation for getting STD from someone else, more then one sexual partner, and numerous other reasons are the causes of STDs. { As to the the other commenter: It is not Great!
Hiram, please get down from the pedestal you have placed yourself on, and learn to empathise with ordinary humans who get sick, have problems, need help and are isolated. As you rightly said, there are numerous other reasons that cause STD, so do not judge others by your yardstick of piety. Even God forgives but you don't, and your words, sometimes hurt others, who are not normal as per you. As a doctor, I know how these patients feel hurt by others. They need our compassion and not hatred. Let people decide, how they live their life and support them, if they err and fall. Be kind and loving to others, irrespective of their state, it is more important than being morally upright and living in an ivory tower, despising others. God bless you and be compassionate in 2010.
"As a doctor, I know how these patients feel hurt by others. They need our compassion and not hatred. Let people decide, how they live their life and support them, if they err and fall.".....Dr. Jasmin, what I hear you saying is: "If a patient comes into your office, and you find your patient has an incurable disease, you will not say anything to Indian government about the disease because you believe compassion for patient comes before compassion for the public at large." Don't you have any compassion for those who get infected by those who are free to move freely to and fro around the world and expose others? As a doctor, you all people should know how diseases when not responded to and treated accordingly will cause epidemics. Compassion is a two way street and compassion should be to treat the infected person with dignity and at the same time confine the person until there is a cure. Maybe this is why so many millions of innocent humans have died from AIDS. The medical experts and the goverment at the time had compassion for the infected but lacked compassion for the millions of people who were to become victims to the disease. It is to late to confine infected people because there are millions of them and the world can't do anything about it now but to find a cure. { "Be kind and loving to others, irrespective of their state, it is more important than being morally upright and living in an ivory tower, despising others.".......One should be loving and kind to others by being proactive to incurable diseases. I hope your dental practices are proactive to stopping diseases by making sure your surgury room, equipment, staff, and yourself are sanitised before you perform any medical procedures. Would you want to infect your patients with unclean equipment or by not sanitising yourself before you operate on your patient? You don't want your patients to infect others do you? The world at large needs to be protected from incurable diseases by their goverments. { Be morally upright should be your goal. Having compassion for the sick is part of being morally upright and so is having compassion for society at large. You are right about "despising others"! You shouldn't do it as you did it with me but that is okay. Why? Because you are one saying it to me and believe it or not doctors are not always right in their assessments. :) No it was not great!
So you suggest locking them all up in quarantine? Nice one, bright spark...
Great!
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