Party Vibe

• AUSTRALIA should deny entry to refugees and migrants who carry the HIV virus, Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.Howard, who has tightened immigration rules since taking office more than a decade ago, said he would like more advice on the matter but his initial response was that such applicants should be refused.

“My initial reaction is no (they should not be allowed in),” he told commercial radio.
“There may be some humanitarian considerations that could temper that in certain cases, but, prima facie – no.”
Howard said people infected with another illness, tuberculosis, were already prevented from coming to Australia.
His comments follow questions about the rigour of HIV testing among migrants.
Official figures showed the number of people with the AIDS-causing virus moving to Victoria state had quadrupled in the past two years and that some of these people were migrants.
The prime minister said he would consider changing the law to prevent people infected with the virus settling in Australia.
“I think we should have the most stringent possible conditions in relation to that nationwide and I know the health minister is concerned about that and is examining ways of tightening things up,” he said.
Australia ran successful HIV/AIDS education campaigns in the 1980s which have kept the disease in check here, but the disease is spreading rapidly in neighbouring Pacific countries such as Papua New Guinea.