(New York City) The Peace Corps has agreed to no longer terminate volunteers who are HIV-Positive. 

Jeremiah Johnson began his tour as a Peace Corps volunteer in December 2006.  He tested negative for HIV prior to beginning his service.  

For nearly 13 months, he was the sole volunteer in Rozdilna, Ukraine, where he taught English to middle and high school students.

In January 2008, Johnson, who was in Kiev to attend a Russian language program with other volunteers, received a midservice medical examination and opted to take an HIV test. 

After the results confirmed that he was positive for the disease, he was immediately told that he could no longer work in the country because of a Ukrainian law barring people with HIV from working in the country.  He was also told he would not be able to finish his service elsewhere. 

Although he had no health problems, he was only allowed to return to Rozdilna for two days to pack his bags and say goodbye to the people he had met during his tour, the ACLU said in a statement.

He was forced to abandon projects that he had been developing to help the community.  Johnson was then sent to Washington, D.C., for an end-of-service medical exam. 

The ACLU said that while in DC, he again asked Peace Corps officials to explain why he was being terminated and asked if he could continue his service elsewhere, but these requests were denied.  Instead, he was given an automatic medical termination which stated that HIV was the reason.

In April ,the ACLU sent a letter to the Peace Corps reminding it that it is illegal under the Rehabilitation Act for the Peace Corps to discriminate against Johnson because he has HIV. 

The letter cited a federal appeals court decision finding that it is illegal for the Foreign Service to bar people with HIV from serving.  In court, the Foreign Service, which also sends workers around the globe, argued that it was justified in barring people with HIV from service in order to protect the health of people with HIV who would be stationed in areas with limited access to medical treatment.  The court rejected that rationale.

Thursday, the ACLU said that while it is pleased the Corps now includes people who are HIV-positive in its nondiscrimination policy, it will continue to monitor the situation.

“We are very pleased that the Peace Corps has acknowledged that it cannot legally terminate volunteers automatically merely because they test positive for HIV,” said  Rebecca Shore, a staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project. 

“But actions speak louder than words, so we’re going to be keeping a close eye on the agency to make sure it lives up to its promises,” she said.

The new policy guarantees that the Peace Corps will not automatically terminate volunteers who test positive for HIV.  Rather, the agency will conduct an individual assessment of each volunteer who tests positive to determine what steps to take to protect the health of the volunteer, while also allowing the volunteer to continue his or her service as required by the Rehabilitation Act when feasible.  The Peace Corps has also given the ACLU assurances that it will communicate its new policy barring HIV discrimination in a prudent and appropriate manner.

“While I’m still disappointed that I didn’t get to finish the projects I started in the Ukraine, getting the Peace Corps to acknowledge that volunteers with HIV shouldn’t be discriminated against has helped to remind me why I chose to volunteer in the first place,” said Johnson in a statement. 

“Things certainly didn’t turn out the way I thought they would when I signed up, but at least I was able to do some good for future volunteers with HIV.”