Since the 1980’s, individuals living with HIV/AIDS have endured travel restrictions that forbade them from freely traveling within the United States. Today, President Obama lifted the ban, and those inflicted with the condition can finally travel without restraint. The Global AIDS Alliance (GAA) has spoken out in favor of Obama’s move, stating that it will help remove the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.
The GAA also states that although traveling with the condition poses no health threat, there are still 67 countries in the world that impose a travel restriction for individuals living with the HIV virus or AIDS. The organization also believes that the change will help decrease the spreading of misinformation about those who are inflicted.
In 1987, Congress passed legislation adding AIDS to a list of health conditions for which travel was restricted. Three years later in 1990, the Bush Administration was given the green light to lift the ban, but the prohibition remained. In lieu of lifting the ban, men and women with HIV/AIDS were issued 10-day travel visas so they could attend conferences on the subject.
President Obama, who has called the adjustment the "Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009," describes the old policy as being “rooted in fear rather than fact.”
Ryan White, the poster-child for AIDS in the 1980’s, gained media attention when he was forbidden to return to school after being diagnosed. White was a hemophiliac, and accidentally received contaminated blood while in treatment. His public controversy made him well-known for his disease, particularly since most of the world was poorly informed about AIDS in the eighties. Although estimated to live only six months, White lived with the illness for five years and died in 1990.
The Ryan White CARE Act was established that year, and helped raise funds for low-income, under-insured, and uninsured people living with HIV/AIDS. Since then, Ryan White programs have become the largest service provider for inflicted individuals in the United States.
The Act will be published in the Federal Register today, and will take place after a 60-day waiting period. The abolition of the ban now frees 33 million people of all travel restrictions.
© Cheapflights Ltd Andrea Mooney
