The International AIDS Society signaled Wednesday it is considering holding its 2012 global conference in Washington, D.C., but only if the US government changes a law banning HIV-positive immigrants and visitors from entering the country. The United States last hosted the IAS conference in 1987 in Washington. The IAS relocated its 1992 meeting from Boston to Amsterdam in response to the law; the conference has not been staged in the United States since. Although Congress repealed the law last July, the US Department of Health and Human Services still has HIV on the list of communicable diseases that preclude entry. Similar bans remain in effect in eight other nations: Brunei, China, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The biannual gathering attracts more than 20,000 attendees.
06/11/09
UNITED STATES: AIDS Meeting Demands Lift of US Ban on HIV-Infected Visitors
Source: Science:: Jon Cohen; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention