President Obama announced the end of the ban at the end of October 2009, but there was a 60-day waiting period before this finally came into effect.

Introduced early in the HIV pandemic, the US travel ban was the instituted through the Congressional leadership of the late United States Senator Jesse Helms, R, North Carolina. The ban had prevented visits to the US by people with HIV except in exceptional circumstances. Although it was widely flouted, individuals with HIV who were detected by US immigration staff were refused entry to the country and deported.

Moves to remove the ban were initiated during the Bush administration when the US Congress voted for its repeal.

Following the removal of the ban, the International AIDS Society confirmed that the 2012 International AIDS Conference will be held in Washington D.C. The US capital has an HIV prevalence of 3% - the threshold for a severe, generalised epidemic is 1%.

HIV-positive people who wish to visit the US will now be able to do without any additional documentation or proceedure beyond what is ordinary proceedure.

HIV has also ceased to be a bar for immigration to the US.

"The United States of America has moved one step closer to helping combat the stigma and ignorance that still too often guides public policy debates around HIV/AIDS. Today, a sad chapter in our nation’s response to people with HIV and AIDS has finally come to a close and we are a better nation for it,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “This policy, in place for more than two decades, was unnecessary, ineffective and lacked any public health justification.” —Staff