A letter in the June issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases proposes creation of a National HIV in Foreign-born Registry (NHFR), an online database to collect information about HIV-positive immigrants who receive treatment in the United States.

The registry would compile demographic, social, and clinical data from healthcare providers, and make this information available to other healthcare providers across the country while keeping patients’ anonymity, said the authors.

Similar programs, such as the Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry, have previously found success in promoting awareness and revealing shortcomings in current healthcare practices.

The authors hope that the NHFR will likewise improve the treatment and care received by the incoming immigrant population.

“The lifting of the HIV entry ban represents a first step towards an inclusive immigration reform, and the NHFR will be essential for the effective advocacy and improved care in this population,” wrote authors Dr. Jose Castillo-Mancilla and Dr. Monica Carten.

This past fall, President Obama lifted a 22-year ban on HIV-positive travelers entering the U.S. (see related AIDS Beacon news). The ban was initially instated in 1987, during a time of widespread fear and uncertainty regarding the HIV pandemic.

Now that the ban has been lifted, people will no longer be denied entry to the U.S. because of their HIV status, which advocates say will reunite families and allow travel of HIV-positive activists and researchers.

Access to U.S. healthcare will also be more widely available to foreign-born immigrants with HIV.

There is currently no effective compilation of data on HIV-positive immigrants entering the U.S., including their treatment histories and HIV/AIDS knowledge. Migration is a known risk factor of HIV transmission, which makes this lack of information important to correct, argue the authors of the letter.

“Most reports have failed to distinguish between foreign-born immigrants and U.S.-born minorities, and have not recognized differences in immigrant populations by country of origin,” wrote Drs. Castillo-Mancilla and Carten.

“These limitations have reduced the effect of the risk-reduction and health-care access strategies in these groups.”

The authors outline five goals for the NHFR: to monitor trends in health in the HIV-positive immigrant population; to facilitate their access to care; to assist with allocation of resources to HIV programs; to create a healthcare provider network for HIV-positive immigrants; and to improve worldwide data on HIV infections.

For more information on the proposed registry, please see the article in The Lancet Infectious Diseases (excerpt).