HIV/AIDS Awareness. A father’s choice.

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

What a headline! For the first time in history, our waiting lists have exceeded 4000 people who are waiting to receive life saving HIV medications.

Here is latest ADAP Watch from NASTAD:

http://www.nastad.org/Docs/Public/InFocus/20101029_ADAP%20Watch%20update%20-%2010.29.10.pdf

Now I would like to switch gears here just a bit and share something that I read last week. Brown University has won a $7.5-million, five-year federal grant to study how drinking alcohol affects people with HIV.

The money, from the National Institutes of Health, will establish the Brown Alcohol Research Center on HIV which will conduct several studies on how alcohol affects health and behavior. Peter Monti (professor and director of the new research center) said both alcohol and HIV weaken the brain and the liver. Alcohol use can also make a patient less likely to follow his or her medication regimen or to abstain from unsafe sex.

In other words, we know that alcohol is not good for you if you are HIV positive. You might not take your HIV medication. This research will look at how much if any you can safely drink. We also know that if you don’t take HIV medication, the vast majority will progress to full blown AIDS and face disability and/or death.

My point here is not to discourage research. It is to say very clearly that we have to get our priorities straight. What good is it to have a National AIDS Strategy if we can’t even have a strategy to allocate federal funds to the highest priority issues. Issues of how to fund the shortfall in ADAP are being debated in Congress with nobody denying it needs to be funded but disputing how it should be funded.

I realize that the federal government allocates money from different pots and it seems none of those pots are even on the same stove…

Furthermore, it has taken the intervention of NASTAD – National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors to get cost containment agreements with major pharmaceutical companies like Gilead, Boehringer Ingelheim and ViiV for ADAP.

So it seems we are still waiting for a comprehensive and workable National HIV/AIDS Strategy from our leaders in Washington.

While we wait, 4,157 people are waiting to receive life-saving medication.

I’d like to take credit for asking that question, but Lorraine Teel, Executive Director of the Minnesota AIDS Project, asked it in an op-ed piece last week in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Here is the link to read her article:

http://www.startribune.com/yourvoices/99326969.html

Lorraine lays out some very valid points about the Obama National AIDS Strategy. No more tip toeing around “language that may be perceived as not politically palatable”. Anyone can be infected by HIV, but the truth is that not everyone is at equal risk. Resources and messages need to be targeted at the groups most affected.

She also points out that controlling HIV, like many other public health threats, has no easy “one size fits all” solution.  It is just not the same message to young heterosexuals as it may be to gay males.

But Lorraine nails it when she talks about how in the real world we live in, we take risks, and we make mistakes. We have to live with the consequences of those mistakes.

The difference here is that we look at HIV infection differently than other risk behaviors like smoking, driving too fast and binge drinking.  Lorraine notes with HIV, it is always someone else’s fault. People point fingers and assign blame and rarely does that include themselves.

We treat HIV differently that other risk behaviors like smoking, overeating, and binge drinking, yet each of these have dire consequences. Why is dying from clogged arteries that we contributed to so much more acceptable than HIV? Because we don’t approve of the behavior that lead to the problem?

Or is it that perhaps most of us haven’t experienced a known behavior that puts you at risk for HIV? This is what the readers of her piece had to say in the comments written on the Star Tribune web site. I hope you would all read what she wrote and take the time to comment responsibly. I know that I did. The comments that were on the site show why HIV is still such a challenge across this country.

We will be sharing more in my next few blog posts about doing what WE can to stop HIV. In the meantime, I hope you will join me on Twitter http://twitter.com/kellyhivads for our One Dad Against HIV campaign to join 10,000 Twitter voices together.

So, as Lorraine says it, the next time you point that finger – turn it around and ask yourself, “What have I done today to stop HIV?”

There has been much discussion in the news about ADAP recently. We are hearing for the first time about thousands across the country now on waiting lists to join the program. These are people standing in a line that we don’t see.

In case you don’t know about ADAP, here is a little history. ADAP (pronounced ay-dap) started by Congress in 1987 to provide HIV related prescription drugs to people living in the United States who don’t have health insurance or not enough health insurance. By not enough, I mean they don’t have coverage for prescription drugs. When Congress gives the money to the states, it says they have to spend it on HIV “theraputics”.

To qualify for ADAP, there are elibility requirements that vary by state and change every year. Basically there is a maximum income requirement, residency requirement, and a no Medicaid requirement. Some states require that you have no health insurance at all and some require that you first apply for Medicaid and be denied.

So most of the people on ADAP are working, paying taxes and contributing to our society. They are just caught in a Catch 22 situaion where they can’t afford the incredibly high cost of HIV medications.

So what is up with ADAP? Why all of the sudden the news of waiting lists?

As of July 22, there were at least 2,158 people waiting for enrollment in an ADAP program, up from 2,090 on July 1 (which was itself an all-time high). Two new states, Georgia and Ohio, have started waiting lists, with Ohio not yet reporting how many people are on its list.

Earlier this month, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a $25 million reallocation of federal funds for ADAP. According to the Secretary, the funds will be available in mid-August and “will meet ADAP’s projected need through the end of the fiscal year.”

Problem is that state’s are now uping the requirements for ADAP so more people are now losing eligibility for the program. This can force them to quit their jobs and become eligible for other government funded programs like Medicaid to get their life prolonging medications. Their only other choice is to stop taking medications until they become so sick they qualify for Social Security Disability.

What’s up with ADAP? It is another story about how we prioritize the use of the taxpayer’s money in times of budget shortfalls. This time it can mean the difference between life and death.

If you want to know more about ADAP, there is a great article in the January/February edition of Positively Aware.

Much more to follow!

The HIV/AIDS national strategy released by the White House today said that most Americans no longer view HIV as an urgent health problem. 

Those of us who deal with this every day know the costs and the pain of HIV.

Not being viewed as an urgent health problem concerns me because we have to be front and center when it comes time for the appropriation of federal funds. It is a lot harder to compete with dollars that could be spent on cancer or obesity – two health problems that Americans do view as pressing.

President Obama announced some new initiatives to cut new infections, increase the number of people who get tested and treated, and reduce the disparities in access to HIV care. These include goals to be reached by 2015:

•Reduce new HIV infections by 25% to 42,225 from about 56,300.

•Cut the rate of the virus’ spread by 30%, from 5 people a year infected by every 100 living with HIV to 3.5 per 100.

•Increase from 79% to 90% the percentage of HIV-positive people who know they’re infected with the virus.

• Increase the percentage of people newly diagnosed with HIV who get treatment within 90 day to 85% (35,078), from 65% today (26,824).

But the President didn’t announce any new funding to pay for these goals.

At a time when we are struggling with how to pay for the people on the ADAP waiting lists, it is hard to envision how we will pay for the federal government efforts to reach these goals. Let’s be honest here, there is a huge federal deficit and an economy that is not going to generate the kind of tax revenues that will support additional spending.

The only answer is that each one of us in the HIV community must redouble our efforts to get the word out and keep it out there. We’ve got to talk, walk, sing, and even dance to share how HIV is spread and how it can be treated.

We can make these goals, but we each need to make them our own.

I was reading over reports from the briefing held just over a week ago by a host of prominent HIV/AIDS organizations including amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research; AVAC; HIV Medicine Association; IDSA/HIVMA Center for Global Health Policy; the San Francisco AIDS Foundation; and the Treatment Action Group.

The keynote speaker was Anthony Fauci, MD, director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health.

I like to look at the positive first, so let me share a bit about what they found was working for us right now. “More than 30 effective antiretroviral drugs are approved for use in HIV/AIDS, and these have “totally transformed the lives of HIV-infected individuals,” Dr. Fauci said. “We went from a 26-week lifespan to a 40-year-plus life span” for those infected with the virus in the past 15 years.

Of concern is that for every person who started on antiretroviral therapy in 2008, 2 to 3 people were infected with HIV. “We are not winning the game,” he said.

According to Dr. Fauci, we can reach our goal of controlling and ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic by focusing on three areas: scaling up delivery of proven therapies, curing existing infections, and preventing new infections. He feels that our greatest hope is a “functional cure,” in which HIV patients are treated early and aggressively and then go into permanent remission where the virus no longer replicates.

Dr. Fauci went on to say an additional strategy for preventing new infections was “critical” and “eminently feasible.” This strategy includes use of microbicides, male circumcision, blood supply screening, and the use of clean syringes and condoms.

But there have been devastating failures in reaching our goal of creating a vaccine that will prevent infection. “Last year for the first time we had the first signal of a success in a vaccine trial,” Dr. Fauci said. Much more research must still done.

It seems that we remain in the position where individual behavior is our primary weapon for prevention. We can provide the tools that assist with prevention, but they must be used.

As Dr. Fauci says, there may be an impression “that we really have our arms around this and that things are stable and they are not.”

Our science has brought us to the point of creating what can be described now as a chronic disease, but not to the point of curing it or truly preventing it. Stunning successes mixed with devastating failures – very much like a life spent living the battle of HIV.

I started out to write a blog post about the true impacts of research news on the daily lives of those with HIV/AIDS. Part of what we do at http://myhivaidsawareness.com is to review each day what is happening the areas of prevention, treatment, care and research.

But then I came across an article posted in Business Week – http://bit.ly/c49GXl – and a few other publications that said, “Morphine May Protect Brains of People With HIV.” I looked a little further and found they studied this because doctors saw that HIV+ heroin users were not developing AIDS-related dementia. Okay, but doesn’t morphine have huge addictive and tolerance problems? Are we telling people to start using morphine or its close relative heroin?

To get past the headline, I looked a little deeper into HIV and heroin. Other research has found that drugs like morphine and heroin suppress the immune system and enhance the inflammatory effects of HIV on brain encephalitis. In other words, they can make you much worse.

You have to read past the headline and find that doctors are saying that a morphine-like substance could be developed that does not have the typical dependency and tolerance issues. They aren’t saying use heroin or morphine to protect your brain. But the headline sure sounded like an endorsement of morphine and no such morphine-like substance now exists.

Research is defined as the “systematic investigation to establish facts.” Individual research projects only look at a very tiny part of the whole HIV puzzle. Many times they present conflicting information that can be very confusing if you are trying to figure out a treatment regimen that works for you.

Most importantly, when we report on and/or hear about new research, we have to remember that impact of most research is years away. Just in the past few months we have heard about the potential importance of bananas, an acne drug, and some common anti-biotics in HIV treatment and prevention. But where does it fit in your treatment today?

We will continue to review and share the latest research findings especially those that hold promise for the future. But it is important to never forget that your treatment today is what impacts your future.

If you have questions about treatment, please check with your medical provider. If you wish to have some additional information about HIV treatment, I recommend some of these great resources that are available from Project Inform:

http://www.projectinform.org/info/decisions/decisions.pdf

http://www.projectinform.org/info/avs/avs.pdf

…but let it be more about his life.

Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS at age 13 and gained international notoriety fighting for the simple right to attend school. In his short life, he opened hearts to the humanity of AIDS and opened minds to its reality.

As a father, I remember him most as a student and a son. He taught us about courage and forgiveness when by all accounts he should have shown none. His mother taught me how the strength of a parent can help shape the life of a child – even one facing the uncertain future of HIV/AIDS.

Photo courtesy of humanillnesses.com

It may have been inevitable that he would succumb to AIDS in a world without early diagnosis and anti-retroviral therapy. But his family’s fight for basic human rights drove awareness and focus in a time of fear and ignorance.

After moving to a new community, Ryan was able to thrive in his new world, attending school events, learning to drive, and making the honor roll. Maybe for a little while, he got to be a kid.

Two decades later, Ryan’s legacy lives on. His mark can be found in legislation that provides assistance to AIDS victims and in the commitment of his mother and friends around the world to fight the disease that killed Ryan.

His name is on our country’s most significant AIDS legislation: The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. First approved in 1990 and extended in 2009 by President Obama, the act created the nation’s largest HIV/AIDS federal grant program. It has been called America’s most important step in fighting the AIDS epidemic, helping thousands annually to receive support and care.

May we never need another Ryan White to lead a nation to better understanding. Bless Ryan and his family for their conviction and strength. This was something he didn’t need to go to school to learn.

“AIDS can destroy a family if you let it, but luckily for my sister and me, mom taught us to keep going. Don’t give up, be proud of who you are, and never feel sorry for yourself.”

~Ryan White

To find out more about the life and legacy of Ryan White, please visit http://ryanwhite.com.

San Francisco public health doctors are urging patients to begin taking HIV medications soon after their diagnosis rather than waiting until their immune systems become compromised. Reports of this major policy change first surfaced last week in a New York Times article.

These new city guidelines – to be announced next week by the Department of Public Health – may be the most forceful in the world in their strong endorsement of early treatment against HIV. Doctors will offer patients combination therapy and advise them to pursue early treatment, but the patients will ultimately decide whether to begin therapy right after their diagnosis.

Antiretroviral therapy is traditionally used to stall or prevent the progression of HIV to AIDS, and it can also prevent other side effects of a degenerating immune system, like opportunistic infections and cancers. The downside is that ART can also cause liver and kidney damage among other complications.

The issue of when to begin treatment is an often discussed decision that we are asked to make with very little information on when to begin a lifetime regimen of costly and sometimes toxic medications. The answer to when remains in dispute, but San Francisco doctors are opting for treatment before permanent damage is done

Even our nation’s experts are solidly divided on the issue of when to begin treatment. In December of last year, only half of the HIV experts on the 38 member Department of Health and Human Services panel favored starting drugs in patients with healthy levels of more than 500 T-cells.

The issue for doctors and patients is whether the damage caused by HIV is more life threatening than the damage caused by some of the antiretroviral drugs. Doctors just don’t know the answer to that question right now. You can expect a great deal of discussion on that in the coming weeks and months.

We will be exploring treatment options in the next few days on our blog. Please check back for new insights on when to start treatment.

Last week, scientists at Johns Hopkins University made a startling announcement.

The common and  inexpensive antibiotic known as minocycline has been used to treat acne. Researchers found it effectively targets infected immune cells where HIV lies dormant and prevents them from reactivating and replicating.

Minocycline can be used in combination with a standard drug therapy we know as HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy), according to this new research published online and appearing in April 15, 2020 edition of  The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

“The powerful advantage to using minocycline is that the virus appears less able to develop drug resistance because minocycline targets cellular pathways not viral proteins,” says Janice Clements, Ph.D., Mary Wallace Stanton Professor of Faculty Affairs, vice dean for faculty, and professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in their press release.

She went on to say that the big challenge for doctors is to keep the HIV in a dormant state and minocyline is another arm of the defense against HIV.

To read more about this new breakthrough, please go to http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2010/03_18a_10.html.

It is true… a potent new HIV inhibitor derived from bananas may open the door to new treatments to prevent sexual transmission of HIV says the University of Michigan Medical School study published this week.

Scientists are taking a closer look at lectins, naturally occurring chemicals in plants, because of their ability to halt the chain reaction that leads to a wide array of infections. In this case, the banana lectin (BanLec) binds to a key HIV-1 protein opening the door to developing compounds that can prevent sexual transmission of HIV.

Sound a little far-fetched? It should be noted that drugs ranging from Quinine (used to treat malaria) to Taxol (an anti-tumor agent) are derived from plants.  Certainly we can’t forget that the powerful pain medication morphine comes from a plant.

The U-M team noted that some of the most promising compounds for inhibiting HIV transmission are agents that block the virus prior to integration into its target cell.

Michael D. Swanson, a doctoral student in the graduate program in immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of the study, said “the problem with some HIV drugs is that the virus can mutate and become resistant, but that’s much harder to do in the presence of lectins.”

Therapies using BanLec could be cheaper to make than current anti-retroviral medications and BanLec may provide a wider range of protection. It works through a self-applied microbicide compound.

The authors of this study say that even a modest success with BanLec could save millions of lives. In a time of shrinking budgets for anti-retrovirals, the banana may truly hold promise for preventing infection.

So let’s hear it for one of our favorite fruits.

“On a traffic light green means go and yellow means yield, but on a banana it’s just the opposite. Green means hold on, yellow means go ahead, and red means where the hell did you get that banana at…”
~Mitch Hedberg

Many patients diagnosed with HIV today will have normal life expectancies, two European studies have found.

The studies were presented at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) found that certain groups of patients including those diagnosed recently and some patients with high CD4 counts when they begin treatment – will have normal or near to normal life expectancies.

In the first study done in the Netherlands, for a patient diagnosed at the age of 25 their life expectancy came to 52.7 years. This means they would die, on average, at the age of 77.7. There was relatively no difference to the life expectancy for 25 year olds in the overall Dutch population which was 53.1 years.

The study known as ATHENA is a long-term national observational study that has been following HIV positive people in the Netherlands since the introduction of combination Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART)

The researchers noted, “The life expectancy of asymptomatic HIV-infected patients who are still treatment-naive and have not experienced [an HIV or AIDS-defining symptom] at 24 weeks after diagnosis approaches that of age and gender-matched uninfected individuals.”

It is important to note that the follow-up time in the study was short and that the predictions are dependent on ART treatment continuing to work. It is worth emphasizing that this study also excluded late-diagnosed patients.

In the second study performed in France in 2005, a similar result was reported.

In a time when we are concerned about the cost and support for continuing ART treatment, these studies reinforce the importance of early diagnosis and continued therapy.

To read more about these studies and how they were conducted, please read:

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/507F3477-660B-4D89-8527-DD915A1B339D.asp

After a little over a month after the major  Haiti earthquake, at least 200,000 people are known to be  dead.  Partners Luke Montgomery and Nate Gudias have been working to make a difference.  Cause Commandos is the name of their grassroots organization that has raised at least $10,000 in necessary supplies, including baby formula, medicines and drugs.  Luke is a former resident of Haiti and founded an orphanage for children with AIDS.

“We’re not disaster aid professionals but we just had to take action, so we simply got on a plane,” says Nate. “After landing in the Dominican Republic we went to local medical supply stores and pharmacies and loaded up on antibiotics, prescription painkillers and other essentials from bandages to baby formula, from IV fluids to injection syringes. We crammed every inch of our big rented SUV full of supplies and every bag we had was overflowing with urgently-needed drugs. We then drove all through the night to the Haitian border. There we hooked up with the Dominican navy. We loaded our all of our supplies onto a relief ship and set sail for Haiti and have been running back and forth ever since.”

They promise 100 percent of all donations to their organization will go to Haiti relief.

The HIV AIDS Pandemic

You may ask yourself–how did this all start?  Where did HIV come from?  According to WebMD.com, “AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since 1981.  That’s about half the number of people who died in World War II.  And it’s not over.  1.1 million Americans are among the 33 million people now living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.”

Somewhere around the start of the 20^th century, scientists believe a hunter in West Central Africa killed an infected chimpanzee, and in the process, the virus entered into the hunter’s bloodstream.  The virus spread among human hosts, but the deaths were associated with other diseases.  By 1981, the disease was first identified among gay men in the United States, but the HIV AIDS Pandemic was soon recognized as impacting all genders and sexual orientations.   In 1985, the term “HIV” was internationally recognized as the accepted term for the infection.  Sadly, this is also the time of some of the greatest panic and prejudice directed towards people living with HIV.  In fact, it has only been this year, 2010, that the federal government has lifted the ban against allowing citizens of other nations who are HIV positive,  to freely enter the United States.

image courtesy of healthday.com

Between 1996-1997, a new type of drug intervention reduced the death rate of Americans with HIV by more than 40 percent.  Sadly, the HIV AIDS Pandemic continues to ravage other national populations that cannot afford the new drugs.   By the start of this decade, AIDS became the world wide number one killer of people between the ages of 15-59.

image courtesy of momspharmacy.com

The HIV AIDS Pandemic has also recently been reflected in a soaring of infection rates in the United States.  In 2008, new HIV rates were up by 11 percent from what they were in 2003.

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MyHIVAIDSAWawareness was created to meet the needs of people newly diagnosed with HIV and people who have been living with HIV for a significant amount of time and need to have an easily accessible overview of the current updates and options in living with HIV.

Remember—you don’t have to be infected with HIV to be affected.    Just so, MyHIVAIDSawareness  was also designed for people who care about someone with HIV, even if they aren’t HIV positive themselves.

For everyone, there is a lot to learn, and as science advances, knowledge can change, requiring updates.   This is one of the challenges of the Internet—when you do searches on HIV and AIDS awareness, you may find information that is no longer current or accurate.  MyHIVAIDSawareness has a committed staff active in providing you with useful and accurate information.

image courtesy of weather.comAt this time of awful tragedy in Haiti we would like to alert you to Yele Haiti, a charity set up by the musician Wyclef Jean. Originally begun to help Haiti s citizens with educational outreach and other programs, Yele Haiti is now working with support in the earthquake recovery. If the site is overwhelmed by people wanting to provide support, please keep trying. There are also other opportunities from international relief groups: International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies.

image courtesy of mashable.com
If you ve been around for awhile, you may recall Haiti and HIV have been associated for many years. In the bad old days and the start of the AIDS pandemic, journalists cruelly came up with the term 4-H Club, to refer to the groups considered at the time to be high-risk Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heron Users and Haitians.

image courtesy of montrealcitizen.com
It is currently believed that Haitians who had been working in Africa became infected and returned to their own nation where the disease began to spread, about the same time visitors to Africa returned to North America and HIV began to spread here. Unfortunately, because of the lack of understanding about the virus in those days, accusations were falsely made that AIDS in America came directly from Haiti.

These claims, which were often founded on dubious evidence, fuelled pre-existing racism in the US and many Haitians suffered severe discrimination and stigmatisation as a result. A large number of Haitian immigrants living in the US lost their jobs and were evicted from their homes Farmer, P. (1992) AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. University of California Press.

Being blamed as the source of AIDS — killed tourism in Haiti,” says Dr. Jean Pape, who has been treating AIDS in Haiti since the beginning and who founded the Haitian Study Group on Opportunistic Infection and Kaposi’s Sarcoma (known by its Haitian acronym GHESKIO) in May 1982. Tourism formed the backbone of the Haitian economy. “… Within a year the tourism industry decreased by 80 percent Goods manufactured in Haiti could not be sold in the U.S.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/countries/ht.html

image courtesy of the-scientist.com

In terms of HIV, up until the recent earthquake, Haiti has been successful in meeting challenges. Their efforts have included developing a health based outreach to their people. Partners in Health, started by the American physician, Dr. Paul Farmer, has been active in creating this community based model. His HIV Equity Initiative trains local residents to administer free antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients; more than 400 community workers have been trained and more than 1500 patients are currently receiving treatment. “I think that’s Haiti’s lesson,” explains Dr. Farmer, “… if you can integrate prevention and care and make sure there’s better supervision of patients with the help of community health workers, I think other countries with major AIDS epidemics … are going to see good results.” Ibid.

Despite all the country’s problems, Haiti has made remarkable gains in combating HIV, in part because of the development of a broad-based health care system that enlists ordinary citizens to provide health care within their communities. Dr. Paul Farmer, an American physician whose organization Partners in Health pioneered this model in Haiti, operates a community health center in the rural settlement of Cange. His HIV Equity Initiative trains local residents to administer free antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients; more than 400 community workers have been trained and more than 1500 patients are currently receiving treatment. “I think that’s Haiti’s lesson,” explains Dr. Farmer, “… if you can integrate prevention and care and make sure there’s better supervision of patients with the help of community health workers, I think other countries with major AIDS epidemics … are going to see good results.” Ibid.

image courtesy of dailymail.com 

 Did you know that if you had HIV, the United States restricted you from being in the country for over 30 days?  After 22 years, the American ban on HIV positive international travelers was lifted on January 5, 2010. The ban was instituted at the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, and was driven by fear, rather than medical science. It dates back to the early history of HIV, where U..S. policy considered it to be a communicable disease. Doctors, scientists, and many politicians had campaigned for it to be removed from the beginning. Foreign visitors who had the virus were able to get temporary visas, but were not able to stay longer than thirty days. This prevented them from working or studying in the United States.

Joe Somonese, speaking for the Human Rights Campaign, stated: “Today, a sad chapter in our nation’s response to people with HIV and AIDS has finally come to a close and we are a better nation for it. This policy, in place for more than two decades, was unnecessary, ineffective and lacked any public health justification.”

image courtesy of harpas.org

Other nations that still maintain a similar ban are Russia, Israel, New Zealand, Egypt, Poland and China.

U.S. Lifts Travel Ban for People with HIV