Tuesday, June 30, 2009

HHS this week will issue proposed regulations that would remove HIV from the list of "communicable diseases of public health significance," effectively lifting the ban on HIV-positive foreign residents from entering the country, the Long Island Newsday reports (Reddy, Long Island Newsday, 6/29). In 2008, former President George W. Bush signed into law a bill that removed the statutory ban on foreign travelers and immigrants with HIV from entering the U.S. HHS then needed to remove HIV from the list of inadmissible conditions. The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register this week and then undergo a 45-day comment period before it can become final (Hsu, Washington Post's blog "44," 6/29).