HIV sufferers should be banned
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Australian Prime Minister has called for a ban on HIV-positive people entering the country.
John Howard said his government was investigating whether it could tighten existing restrictions to stop sufferers migrating to Australia.
Asked in a radio interview whether people with the virus that causes AIDS should be allowed into Australia as migrants or refugees, Mr. Howard said: 'My initial reaction is no.'
He said there may be 'humanitarian considerations' in certain cases, and that he would like to take 'more counsel' on the issue.
'I think we should have the most stringent possible conditions in relation to that nationwide,' he added.
'I know the health minister is concerned about that and is examining ways of tightening things up.'
Mr. Howard was asked about the issue during a visit to Melbourne, where the state health minister said this week 70 of the 334 new HIV infection cases reported in Victoria in 2006 were among immigrants who had arrived in the country with the virus.
Don Baxter, of the non-government group the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations, said HIV tests were among health checks prospective immigrants were given already.
Infection was already grounds for rejection on the grounds that an HIV-positive person could impose an unfair burden on the public health system, he added.
'It's very tight already," Mr Baxter said.
Many countries, including the United States, impose restrictions on immigration and visa approvals for people with HIV, though there are often exceptions in special cases.
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I'd heard about these restrictions before but after reading that news article, it hit me that HIV/AIDS sufferers are still going to be treated with scorn and the stigma isn't going to ever go away.
If they can be barred from entering a country just because they are HIV positive, then how is the western world going to claim to be fighting the disease when they give it an "arm's length" attitude. It's not like they will catch it thru a sneeze.
According to the article, the US only allows "special cases" into the country. I wonder what special cases these are seeing as it makes no difference when u're infected. And they can't be going for treatment because ARVs are now available almost everywhere. So maybe the special cases they talk about are the positive persons that are going to attend a cetrain conference on HIV prevention.
This is really absurd and pathetic.
-Cheri.
PS: Original articlae adapted from Metro News @ metro.co.uk. Additional writing below the stars by Cheri.
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2 comments:
Australia has always been weird like that. They pride themselves on being an island in the middle of nowhere, inaccessible to all the diseases that the rest of the world is used to. During my stay there, I was amazed at how little they had to say about AIDS. I did not see a single television show about the disease, or a single article in the papers, in an entire year. Maybe I just wasn't looking.
God bless.
Ignorance of the world and simplifying human nature is not to be lauded. Documents can be falsified and AIDS is not immediately manifest. Does this imply that AIDS is not there already, ready to be spread?
Gee.
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