China lifts ban on tourists suffering from HIV/AIDS

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 28 2010

In a new development China has lifted its decades old reservations towards travelers and tourists suffering from HIV and AIDS in the wake of the Shanghai World Expo this weekend.

The announcement was made on the government website. The Shanghai World Expo is expected to be attended by up to 100 million visitors during its six-month run and although most of the visitors are expected to be Chinese, there could be nearly 4 million foreigners who wish to attend. United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon praised this move saying, “I commend President Hu Jintao for China's decision to remove travel restrictions based on HIV status… Punitive policies and practices only hamper the global AIDS response… I urge all other countries with such restrictions to remove them as a matter of priority and urgency.” The World Health Organization has also commended the effort and called upon other nations to do the same. Nearly 50 other countries have such laws. “China's decision to categorically remove HIV/AIDS from the list of conditions subject to entry restrictions is a significant step in the right direction,” director-general Margaret Chan said in a statement.

In a Xinhua report an official said, “People gradually realized that restricting the entry of foreigners with AIDS, sexually transmitted disease and leprosy to the country has very limited effect on the work of domestic disease prevention and control.” And also added that such a ban “had become an inconvenience for China to hold various international activities.” Earlier patients with mental illnesses, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases were also barred. Patients with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases were specifically barred in 1989 saying that this may “damage national security or social order.” Now only those with severe illness are barred.

The U.S. similarly lifted its 22 year old ban on HIV patients last October thereby allowing the nation to host the world’s biggest AIDS conference, the International AIDS Society, for the first time in 2012. UNAIDS said in a statement yesterday that such bans only serve to discriminate and do not protect people from infections.

Mitchell Warren, executive director of the New York-based AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group also said that, “It is an exciting time.” She welcomed this change saying it “is pretty significant, especially for China and the U.S., where exchanges -- both scientific and more generally -- are increasingly important.”