Proposed federal rules for HIV-infected foreign visitors blasted

[vokz]

One year after the Bush administration promised to streamline a process to allow people with HIV infection to visit the United States despite a congressionally mandated travel ban, critics are saying that the proposed new rules are more restrictive than the old ones.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/06/BAJ6TO8E0.DTL

[emeraldize]

Thanks so much for posting this Vokz.

I am going to create a link to your post in the DHS thread (also in AIDS Activism) to encourage site members to post their comments on the DHS website using the link in the initial post.

Because today 12-6-07 is the deadline, technically, comments should be received until 11:59. I certainly hope so.

[vokz]

I see the HIV Medicine Association pitched in with a last minute broadside:

Bush Proposal for HIV-positive Visitors Makes a Bad Rule Worse

The Bush administration's proposed rule for waivers allowing some people with HIV to visit the United States is even more restrictive, burdensome, and arbitrary than the rule it is intended to replace, according to the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA). Furthermore, it does nothing to address a fundamental flaw in U.S. policy barring people with HIV from entering the United States.

"The law denying entry to people with HIV has no basis in science or public health and should be repealed," said HIVMA Chair Arlene Bardeguez, MD, MPH, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. People with HIV have been barred from entering the United States since 1990, despite the fact that HIV infection is a manageable condition that is not transmitted through casual contact. Individual exceptions for short visits may be granted on a case-by-case basis, but only through an intrusive, stigmatizing, and unscientific waiver process.

http://www.hivma.org/Content.aspx?id=8718

[Iggy]

It truly is amazing how out of step with science and the medical community that the U.S. is and seems to be proud of being.

I'm gonna continue to work for a change through congress, but it would be nice to have a President who didn't seem to actively campaign in the wrong direction on the issue.

[Miss Philicia]

Does it surprise anyone that this president says one thing and does another?