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On July 30, President Bush signed a sweeping HIV/AIDS bill which ends a 1993 Clinton-era policy explicitly banning HIV-positive people from traveling to the United States.

Though widely hailed by gay and HIV-activists, the measure does not remove HIV as one of the communicable diseases for which the Department of Health and Human Services can deny entry to foreign visitors. That restriction, created in 1987 through efforts of the late Senator Jesse Helms, remains on the books as a potential impediment to HIV-positive travelers.

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"We appreciate the President signing the repeal of this unjust and sweeping policy," Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solomonese said. "The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public health service, is unnecessary and ineffective. We now call on Secretary of Health and Human Services Leavitt to remove the remaining regulatory barriers to HIV-positive visitors and immigrants."

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), as the bill is titled, allocates $48 billion over the next five years to treat people living with HIV in developing countries, and to fund HIV prevention programs.

However, those receiving PEPFAR funding must spend at least 50 percent of it on abstinence-until-marriage programs or risk losing funding.

"Abstinence-only-until-marriage has been an abject failure in the U.S. and it is undercutting the local, effective prevention efforts in Africa and elsewhere," said Marjorie J. Hill, chief executive officer of Gay Men's Health Crisis.

GMHC also notes that countries receiving the funds must officially denounce commercial sex work as well, despite the need for outreach and prevention education among sex workers.