HIV+ Travel Ban Lifted. Blood and Organ Should Follow

The CDC issued a final rule Monday removing HIV from its list of "communicable disease of public health significance." The amendment allows HIV positive travelers entry into the United States. Prior to the executive order issued by President Obama, positive travelers could be rejected based on their status alone.

"While HIV infection is a serious health condition, it is not a communicable disease that is a significant public health risk for introduction, transmission, and spread to the U.S. population through casual contact," the CDC published in the Federal Register.

The 22-year-old ban was lifted by President Obama on Friday as part of the reauthorizing of the Ryan White Programs. "If we want to be a global leader in combating HIV-AIDS, we need to act like it," he said in a public address.

While the lift on HIV positive travelers is a testament to the administration's increased understanding of HIV communicability, two post-AIDS scare bans remain. Since 1983, the Food and Drug Administration has prohibited men who have sex with other men from giving blood donations, imposing a lifelong ban on gay men. A similar rule also bans gays from donating organs.

The archaic policies remain under review, but little action has been taken to repeal the blood and organ bans. Now is the time for the FDA signal that it too understands the communicability of HIV. By continuing to single out only one high risk population while leaving others untouched, the agency becomes not a proactive voice in the understanding of and protection against HIV, but a stalled stamp in false perceptions that HIV is a "gay disease."