Gates Donates US$ 100M to U.N. for AIDS
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by Constant Brand
Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on
Tuesday donated US$ 100 million to a United Nations health fund to
fight AIDS and called on European Union nations and other countries
to make further contributions. "A dramatic increase in funding is
necessary and required to fight the pandemic," said foundation presi-
dent Patty Stonesifer, who was in Brussels to meet with EU officials.
Stonesifer said the fight against AIDS was a "top priority" for Bill
Gates, the founder of Microsoft and one of the world's richest men.
"We support the establishment of the fund ... Improving health is key
to poverty reduction," Stonesifer said, adding there were five mil-
lion new infections of the virus last year alone.
The announcement of the contribution to the global fund was made
ahead of a key U.N. conference on AIDS to be held next week in New
York. The fund was proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in
April, when he called for a "war chest" of $7 billion to $10 billion
annually to halt AIDS, which has hit Africa hardest and become the
continent's primary killer. At a U.N. conference on poverty last
month, EU countries stepped back from donating money to the fund, ar-
guing there were not enough guarantees yet that the money would be
spent correctly. Many richer countries were skeptical that the health
fund would be a step in the right direction. Poul Nielson, the EU's
development commissioner, argued that the fund needed to broaden its
approach to include other diseases, including tuberculosis and ma-
laria. The EU also wants to tie the fund to providing cheaper drugs
for poorer countries.
The Microsoft founder has also donated $126 million to an earlier
AIDS initiative and $750 million in the past five years to boost
global immunization efforts and to research new medicine. Some 3 mil-
lion children a year die from vaccine-preventable diseases. "We be-
lieve that there is no higher priority than stopping transmission of
this deadly disease," said Bill Gates in a statement announcing the
new donation. Of 36 million people infected with HIV around the
world, 26 million live in Africa. Globally, the virus has killed 23
million people, including 17 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
Stonesifer has been traveling around the world drumming up support
for the fund. So far, the United States and France have been the only
large donor countries to have contributed to the global fund, giving
$200 million and $135 million respectively. The Gates foundation's
assets topped $22 billion in 2000 and it gave away almost $1 billion.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: http://www.gatesfoundation.org
United Nations AIDS conference: http://www.un.org/ga/aids
European Union Development directorate:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/development/sector/social/health_en.htm
Copyright (c) 2001 NewsEdge Corporation 2001 Received by NewsEdge In-
sight: 06/05/2001 04:03:05
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Cecilia Snyder
mailto:csnyder@ccmc.org
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