Overview of the XIX International AIDS Conference

Excerpt

The International AIDS Conference (IAC) returned to Washington, D.C. in July 2012, after a 25-year absence. In fact, the return to Washington, D.C. also marked the first time since 1990 that the conference was held in the United States. The conference had been scheduled to be held in Boston in 1992 but was moved to Amsterdam that year—in large part, to protest the ban on entry to the U.S. of HIV-infected foreign nationals that went into effect in 1987. President Barack Obama announced on October 30, 2009 that the U.S. would do away with the ban; he described the previous policy of banning the entry of HIV-infected foreign nationals as a “decision rooted in fear rather than fact.” Former President George W. Bush began the process to repeal the ban in 2008; the repeal took effect on January 4, 2010. …