Senate Targets Ban on HIV- Positive Visitors

$50B AIDS bill, nearing vote, could dismantle 20-year prohibition
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 16, 2008 4:31 PM CDT
Senate Targets Ban on HIV- Positive Visitors
In this image released by Music World Music/Columbia, singer Kelly Rowland is tested for the HIV at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi on June 19, 2008.    (AP Photo)

The Senate moved today to repeal a ban on allowing immigrants and vistors who are HIV-positive to enter the country, the AP reports. The measure was part of a $50 billion bill to combat AIDS worldwide. The US is one of only a dozen countries—including Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Libya—that forbids the entry of visitors with AIDS.

The US implemented the ban on HIV-positive immigrants and travelers in 1987, and Congress confirmed it in 1993. Democrat John Kerry and Republican Gordon Smith are spearheading the repeal. "There's no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease," Kerry said. (More Senate stories.)

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