[progchat_action] Australian leader would ban HIV positive immigrants
Steven L. Robinson
Rohan Sullivan
The Associated Press
April 13, 2007
Prime Minister John Howard said Friday people with the AIDS virus should not
be allowed to migrate to Australia, and the government was investigating
whether it could tighten existing restrictions. The comments triggered anger
among AIDS workers, who accused Howard of xenophobia and of blaming
sufferers for their illness.
Asked in a radio interview whether people with HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS, should be allowed into Australia as migrants or refugees, Howard said
he would like to take "more counsel" on the issue but added, "My initial
reaction is no." However, he said there may be "humanitarian considerations"
in certain cases.
"I think we should have the most stringent possible conditions in relation
to that nationwide, and I know the health minister is concerned about that
and is examining ways of tightening things up," Howard said.
Howard was asked about the issue during a visit to Melbourne, the capital of
Victoria state, where the state health minister said this week that 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.
Australia has long had restrictions on people who try to immigrate who have
health problems that could threaten to spread disease or impose an
additional burden on the public health system.
Don Baxter of the nongovernment group the Australian Federation of AIDS
Organizations said HIV tests are already among health checks for prospective
immigrants and that most HIV-positive applicants are rejected. "It's very
tight already," Baxter told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Chris Lemoh, an infectious disease specialist who is working on a doctorate
on the spread of AIDS among African immigrants in Victoria, said excluding
people with HIV should be condemned. "It's a hysterical overreaction, it
mixes racism with a phobia about infectious disease," he said. "To not allow
people to come on the basis of any health condition is immoral. It's
unethical, and it's impractical to enforce."
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.
AIDS was first diagnosed in Australia in the early 1980s, and the disease
has mostly been concentrated in large cities such as Sydney and among people
belonging to high-risk groups such as gay men and needle-sharing drug
addicts.
The National Center for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research said in an
October 2006 report that since it was first detected, 25,703 infections had
been reported in Australia, of which 9,827 people developed full-blown AIDS
and 6,621 had died.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid44462.asp
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