People with HIV can no longer be turned away if they try to enlist in the U.S. military, a federal judge has ruled.
The decision , issued this week by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkma, said the Pentagon's ban on HIV-positive people seeking to join the armed forces contributes "to the ongoing stigma surrounding HIV-positive individuals while actively hampering the military's own recruitment goals.
" "Modern science has transformed the treatment of HIV," Brinkema wrote in her ruling. "Asymptomatic HIV-positive service members with undetectable viral loads who maintain treatment are capable of performing all of their military duties, including worldwide deployment." Importantly, HIV can't be spread through saliva, sweat, tears, group exercise or sharing a bathroom.
Instead, most people get HIV through anal or vaginal sex or when sharing needles, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Antiretroviral therapy can also keep HIV viral loads to low or undetectable levels, and patients who are virally suppressed won't transmit the virus through sex or syringe-sharing, according to the CDC. In recent years, the Pentagon's policies toward HIV-positive Americans have come under legal fire. In 2022, Brinkema struck down the military's ban on people who are HIV-positive from joining the armed forces as officers or deploying abroad, CNN reported.
Following that ruling, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo that said people who are HIV-positive will no long.