A "blot" on U.S. HIV/AIDS leadership "ended last month when President [Barack] Obama lifted the prohibition" that kept HIV-positive foreigners from visiting the U.S. or seeking residency, according to a Washington Post editorial. "The process for eliminating the travel ban started under President George W. Bush in July 2008, when he signed legislation that repealed the original statute."

"This punitive policy took effect when AIDS was little understood. Today we know that HIV is not spread through casual contact and that infection is preventable," according to the editorial, which adds that "[t]he new regulation ends mandatory testing for immigration and visitation and will officially start on Jan. 4" (11/19).

Time To 'Build Momentum And Push Sanitation'

Margaret Batty, policy and campaigns director of WaterAid, marks World Toilet Day and global efforts to improve sanitation in a guardian.co.uk opinion piece. "Existing evidence suggests poor sanitation may be linked to the deaths of more than 2 million children annually causing more child deaths than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined," Batty writes…