U.S. Lifts Ban On Visitors With H.I.V.

The United States is ending a government ban prohibiting foreign nationals who are H.I.V. positive from entering the country. President Obama reversed the 22-year-old injunction, calling it "rooted in fear rather than fact."

"If we want to be the global leader in combating H.I.V./AIDS, we need to act like it," Obama said Friday at the White House, adding that the ban contributed to a stigma of the disease.

Congress initiated the move to lift the travel ban last year when it approved legislation to pay for treatment and prevention programs sought by former President George W. Bush. The change in the travel ban will take effect after the new year.

Obama announced the decision just before signing a reauthorization of a government program that provides funds for H.I.V.-related health care, the New York Times reported. The Ryan White H.I.V./AIDS Treatment Extension Act is named for the Indiana boy who contracted the disease from a transfusion in the 1980s.