Gates Gives Further $500M To Fight AIDS
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation took its support of AIDS-related research and care to a new level yesterday, announcing a $500 million grant to a global fund that provides AIDS assistance in poor countries.
The Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria will receive the grant over five years.
The gift dwarfs the $150 million the Microsoft Corp. founder’s foundation has given since the fund was created four years ago, and the additional $287 million Mr. Gates announced last month to speed development of an AIDS vaccine.
“The Global Fund is one of the most important health initiatives in the world today,” Mr. Gates said in a statement announcing the gift. “The Fund has an excellent track record, and we need to do everything we can to support its continued success, which will save millions of lives.”
The announcement comes as nearly 25,000 scientists, advocates, and policymakers prepare to meet in Toronto this weekend for the International AIDS Conference.
Governments have been the main contributors to the Global Fund, whose total income to date is $9 billion. But this falls far short of what is needed, fund organizers say.
