Obama Signs Ryan White Bill Extension; Announces End of HIV Travel Ban

President Barack Obama signed a four year extension of the Ryan White CARE Act Friday and also announced the end of the 22-year-old HIV Travel and Immigration Ban. 

The legislation will provide care, treatment, and support services to nearly half of the estimated 1.1 million people infected with HIV/AIDS, most of whom are low-income, through 2013 at about $2.5 billion annually, a 5% increase for all sections of the act, according to the Advocate.

Prior to signing the bill, Obama encouraged everyone to consider the toll the HIV/AIDS epidemic has taken domestically.

“We often speak as if AIDS is going on somewhere else. Often overlooked is that we face a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic of our own,” Obama said.  He noted that early on, AIDS was considered a “gay disease, and those who had it were viewed with suspicion.”

The Ryan White Act has been re-authorized four times, yet this is the first time that the act was not controversial or divisive, according to Obama, passing with bi-partisan support.

The bill is named after Ryan White, who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion at age 13. White went on to fight AIDS-related discrimination against him and others like him and help educate the country about the disease.  He died in April 1990 at the age of 18.

The HIV Travel and Immigration Ban will effectively end in January.

Obama said he hoped the lifting of the travel ban would help end the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS and encourage others to get tested.

"We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic –yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country," he said. "If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it."

He also said that he and his wife Michelle would be getting a second AIDS test soon.