AIDS Panel Calls for End to ‘Stigmatizing’ Foreign Visitors Who Are HIV-Infected : Health: The national commission demands the U.S. Immigration Service stop marking passports with a code indicating presence of the disease.

The National Commission on AIDS, backed by dozens of legal, health and other groups, called Tuesday for changes in U.S. immigration policies that “discriminate against or stigmatize” foreign visitors with AIDS seeking to travel to this country.

“There is no public health justification for current policies,” said Dr. June Osborn, the commission chairman and dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. “They fly in the face of strong international opinion and practice (and) lead to unconscionable infringements of human rights and dignity. . . .”

The commission demanded an end to the practice of marking the passports of infected people who are granted waivers to enter this country with a code that “clearly and permanently indicates the person to whom it belongs is an (AIDS)-infected person,” Osborn said.

For many foreigners, “whose passports are often used as internal identity documents,” the presence of the code could place them or their families in jeopardy, or subject them to stigmatization, the commission said.

The commission also asked the departments of Justice, State, and Health and Human Services for a comprehensive review of immigration regulations with respect to AIDS and other communicable diseases with the hope that Congress would rewrite the laws.

The commission and its supporters join an international movement that opposes sweeping restrictions enacted by Congress in 1987 to prohibit entry of immigrants, visitors, refugees and asylum seekers who have AIDS or are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. The U.S. policies have been condemned by the World Health Organization and other international groups.

The restrictions, Osborn said, “reinforce a false impression that AIDS and HIV infection are a general threat when, in fact, they are sharply restricted in their mode of transmission.”

The law requires those seeking permanent resident status to undergo testing for HIV infection, and those who test positive can be excluded. Foreign visitors are not tested, but they may be asked by immigration officials whether they have the disease or are infected with HIV, particularly if they are carrying AZT, the only licensed antiviral AIDS drug, or blood products used by hemophiliacs.

Further, sponsors of the Sixth International Conference on AIDS, scheduled to be held in San Francisco in June, predicted that as many as one-third of the expected 12,000 participants will boycott the meeting.

In addition, organizers of the 19th International Conference on Hemophilia, slated for Washington next August, said they expected a similar reaction to their meeting if the rules are not changed.

The Geneva-based League of Red Cross Societies, in fact, recently announced that it will not attend the AIDS conference because of the “discriminatory” regulations.

“These sorts of things start growing and have a snowballing effect and may cause many people to stay away,” said Dr. Mervyn F. Silverman, president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research and one of the conference planners, in a telephone interview. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said passports of individuals granted waivers for AIDS or HIV infection are marked with a code of numbers indicating the waivers involve a section of immigration law regarding “dangerous communicable diseases.” AIDS is not specified, they said.

However, commission officials and others said the other diseases on the list--including syphilis, tuberculosis, leprosy and several other sexually transmitted diseases--are rarely used to deny entry.

Initial response to the commission’s proposals from the affected agencies was positive.

Jim Brown, a spokesman for the Public Health Service, said HHS officials recognize that “some groups continue to be concerned about the waiver procedures and the problem of confidentiality.”

As a result, he said, Dr. James O. Mason, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, has asked representatives from the National AIDS program office and the Centers for Disease Control to begin meeting with officials from the departments of Justice and State “to see if additional steps can be taken to address these concerns.”

Frances Jones, a spokeswoman for the State Department’s bureau of consular affairs, said “the law is the law, but within the law, we’re seeking to see how things can be changed to make it easier for those individuals who are HIV positive and require waivers.”

A knowledgeable federal official, who requested anonymity, said the State Department already is examining the possibility of issuing “a supplemental form or document outside the passport that can be issued and later discarded upon that individual’s return to his country.”

Officials from the departments of State, Health and Human Services, and the Justice Department’s Immigration and Naturalization Service said there was little that could be done to change the overall law without action by Congress.

“The inclusion of AIDS on (the list) was not a decision by the INS or by the Administration, it was a legislative matter,” said Duke Austin, an INS spokesman. “The executive branch can’t overrule a law passed by Congress.”

The commission, an independent panel made up of members appointed by Congress and the White House, was created to advise Congress and the President on the development of a “national consensus on policy” concerning the AIDS epidemic.

Among those endorsing the commission’s recommendations were the American Bar Assn., the American Red Cross, the World Federation of Hemophilia, the National Council of La Raza, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Sixth International Conference on AIDS Committee, and the National Organizations Responding to AIDS, which represents 36 AIDS-related groups.