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"Gates: Spur next big advance"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(15/08/06)
TORONTO: Empowering women in developing countries to protect themselves
against HIV with hopeful preventative drugs could be the “next big
breakthrough” in combating the virus that has already claimed 25 million
lives, Bill and Melinda Gates told a global conference.
The couple joined more than 24,000 scientists, activists, celebrities, and
health workers from 132 countries on Sunday at the opening of the week-long
16th International AIDS Conference.
The Microsoft founder – flush with a US$30bil (RM113.6bil) commitment from
Warren Buffet to fight such diseases as AIDS – recently announced he would
step down from his day-to-day duties at the company to devote more time to
philanthropy.
Gates declared at the opening ceremony that the search for a vaccine to
prevent the virus that causes AIDS, and universal treatment for those
infected with HIV, were now top priorities.
“At the same time, we have to understand that the goal of universal
treatment – or even the more modest goal of significantly increasing the
percentage of people who get treatment – cannot happen unless we
dramatically reduce the rate of new infections,” he said.
Gates noted that between 2003 and 2005, the number of people in low- and
middle-income countries on antiretroviral drugs increased by 450,000 each
year.
Yet over the same period, the number of people who became infected with HIV
averaged more than 4 million a year.
“In other words, for each new person who got treatment for HIV, more than 10
people became infected,” he said.
“Even during our greatest advance, we are falling behind.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given US$1.9bil (RM7.2bil) to
support HIV/ AIDS projects worldwide since 1995, and announced last week a
US$500mil (RM1.9bil) grant to the Global Fund to fight AIDS.
“We want to call on everyone here and around the world to help speed up what
we hope will be the next big breakthrough in the fight against AIDS – the
discovery of a microbicide or an oral prevention drug that can block the
transmission of HIV,” Gates said.
“This could mark a turning point in the epidemic, and we have to make it an
urgent priority,” he added.
Microbicides are gels or creams women can use to block infections and
disease.
Sixteen microbicides are being clinically evaluated; five are in major
advanced studies. — AP
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