Obama lifts HIV ban

President Obama on Friday announced that the ban that prohibits foreigners who have tested positive for HIV virus that causes AIDS from entering the United States as an immigrant or tourist will be ended soon.

Mr. Obama early promised to eliminate the restriction he said was rooted in fear rather than fact. Medical scientists have said there is no scientific evidence justifies the restriction.

The ban was enacted in 1987 when fear is widespread that H.I.V., a sexually transmitted virus, could spread from a carrier to a healthy person by physical or respiratory contact. It was tightened in 1993 by Congress as an amendment introduced by Senator Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican.

The new rule negating the band will be published on Monday and would take effect after a routine 60-day waiting period, Mr. Obama was cited as saying at a White House ceremony.

"If we want to be a global leader in combating H.I.V./AIDS, we need to act like it," Mr. Obama was quoted as saying. "Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat."

The United States is among about a dozen countries that bar people with HIV virus, which include poor countries such as Yemen,Qatar and Sudan.

Former President George W. Bush started the process last year by signing legislation passed by Congress in July 2008 to end the ban.

Once the ban is lifted, foreigners who apply for permanent residency or green card will not be required to take a test for AIDS. The new rule will also allow foreigners with the disease to travel to the United States as tourists.

Advocate groups welcomed the White House decision saying that the 2-decade ban is based non-scientific evidence.

Immigrants are required by the law to take a test for AIDS and if they test positive for the virus, their applications to become a resident in the country will surely be rejected.

Critics say there is more to do. Right now, the immigration regulations require female immigrants who want to be naturalized to be a U.S. citizen to get vaccine shots intended to prevent cervical cancer, which is caused by a sexually transmitted virus called HPV.

By David Liu

Some basic information on HIV/AIDS in the United States cited from a CDC document

In the United States, an estimated 1.1 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2006 compared to 30 million people worldwide right now.

In 2007, 42,655 new cases in adults, adolescents and children were diagnosed in 33 states. Of the infected, 26 percent were female and 74 percent male.

In the same year, of men with HIV men, 53 percent acquired the virus through male-to-male sexual contact, 32 percent through high-risk heterosexual contact, and 17 percent via injection drug use. Among women, 83 percent acquired HIV through high-risk heterosexual contact and 16 percent through use of injection drugs.

The majority of cases (51 percent) are found in blacks, 29 percent in whites and 18 percent in Hispanics and Latinos.

There is no cure for HIV.