Obama Lifts HIV+ Travel Ban

President extends bill funding care for low-income HIV/AIDS patients

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 30, 2009 1:25 PM CDT

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Obama Lifts HIV+ Travel Ban — President Barack Obama signs the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

HIV-positive individuals will no longer be banned from visiting or immigrating to the US, President Obama announced today. The president discussed the revocation of the ban, which has stood since 1987, at today's signing of an extension of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS bill. That bill provides funding for HIV/AIDS testing and treatment for low-income individuals.

"We often speak about AIDS as if it's going on somewhere else," the president said. “But often overlooked is the fact that we face a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic of our own—right here in Washington, DC, and right here in the United States of America." The president applauded George W. Bush and the 2008 Congress for beginning the process of overturning the ban last year, CBS News reports. “We are finishing the job," he said.
(More George W. Bush stories.)

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