“We have to continue to seek a global solution to this global problem,” Clinton told a news briefing announcing the 2012 biannual conference would take place in Washington DC, the first time it has been on US soil since 1990. The International AIDS Society, which organizes the conference, hailed the change and urged other nations that maintain bans on HIV-positive visitors to follow suit.
“The return of the conference to the United States is the result of years of dedicated advocacy to end a misguided policy based on fear, rather than science,” IAS President-elect Elly Katabira said in a statement.
Clinton said the end of the ban on HIV-positive visitors to the United States, enacted 22 years ago, would take effect in early January and would be “vigorously” enforced.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the end of the ban was an important shift.
“It was a policy that tore apart families, kept people from getting tested, forced others to hide their HIV status and forgo lifesaving medication … and most of all it didn’t reflect America’s leadership in fighting the disease around the world,” Sebelius told the news conference.
The AIDS virus infects 33 million people globally and around a million in the United States, but more people are living longer due to the availability of drugs, according to a recent United Nations report.
