Obama Reauthorizes HIV/AIDS Law, Promises To End Travel Ban On Monday
10/30/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Today, President Barack Obama extended and strengthened the coverage of HIV/AIDS in the United States by signing into law the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act. In doing so, President Obama recognized that the disease is a priority. Obama opened his remarks noting that, while Americans often focus upon the epidemic in Africa, the United States is in serious condition on this issue.
He also went further and lamented that part of the problem was that the disease was originally seen as striking only one specific part of the population. “It has been nearly three decades since this virus first became known. But for years, we refused to recognize it for what it was. It was coined a “gay disease.” Those who had it were viewed with suspicion. There was a sense among some that people afflicted by AIDS somehow deserved their fate and that it was acceptable for our nation to look the other way,” he said.
What President Obama signed was the fourth reauthorization of the bill. The program set up under the bill helps to provide individuals with the medicines and treatments they need to fight this disease.
On Monday, President Obama will issue new rules regarding travel for people with HIV/AIDS. Stating at the signing, “If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it. And that’s why, on Monday my administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban effective just
after the New Year. “
HIV/AIDS strikes millions of people irregardless of their sexual orientation. Many gay men are more likely to be tested with regards to the disease, and are, thus, more often able to catch it while many straight men tend not to be tested. This is what likely accounts for the disparity in numbers with regards to which group has the most cases.
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Just FYI we are travel blogging from Africa (currently in Uganda) at our website called Border Jumpers or http://www.borderjumpers.org (via twitter @borderjumping).
Here is a post we wrote about the United States lifting the travel ban on people with HIV:
http://borderjumpers1.blogspot.com/2009/11/only-on-todays-news.html
We might be naïve (and grossly uninformed), but we didn’t realize until we just opened the New York Times website that the United States had a ban on letting HIV-positive people travel or immigrate to the United States. In place for 22 years, the ban was enacted at the height of the AIDS epidemic when fear overruled science. Today, thankfully, some (but by no means all) of the stigma of HIV/AIDS has disappeared.
But the fact that the ban was ever in place is disturbing and confusing, especially as we write this from Nairobi, Kenya, a place where over seven percent of the adult population is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The local newspapers classified ads advertise singles looking for love, who freely—and without shame—announce their HIV positive status.
We are also encouraged on the ground by the growing widespread availability of free condoms, the AIDS awareness/education campaigns, and growing number of clinics and medical facilities for sex workers. For Danielle, it is a remarkable improvement from her last visit to Kenya, when the media didn’t report as widely about the disease. Still, the crisis continues to be widespread here–and the effects on farming, on the workforce, and on households is alarming.
All our best, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack