In addition, others infected while in their destination country can face deportation "often without confidentiality and into situations of great discrimination and economic devastation", the UN programme on AIDS and HIV said in a statement.

The travel restrictions based on HIV status show the "exceptionality of AIDS", said UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot.

"No other condition prevents people from entering countries for business, tourism, or to attend meetings," he said.

"No other condition has people afraid of having their baggage searched for medication at the border, with the result that they are denied entry or worse, detained and then deported back to their country," he added.

An international task force on HIV-related travel restrictions, comprising governments, UN agencies and intergovernmental groups, civil society and people infected by the disease, met for the first time on February 25 and 26 in Geneva.

UNAIDS, which co-chairs the task force with the Norwegian government, said: "We hope that their combined efforts will ... influence governments to remove such restrictions."

The task force plans to raise this at several meetings in the coming months, including a high-level meeting on AIDS at the UN General Assembly in New York in June, and at the Global Forum on Migration and Development to be held in October in the Philippines.

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