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Melinda Gates, of the Gates Foundation, has called on government from across the globe to stop ignoring sex workers in their HIV/Aids programmes
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Wife of Microsoft guru, Bill Gates, was speaking at a pre-conference media briefing at the Toronto Convention Centre, in Canada.
She says politicians tend to shy away from making awareness campaigns inclusive of people within the sex industry. Melinda has urged government not to ignore sex workers.
The organisers of the International Aids Conference in Toronto have condemned Steven Harbour, Canada's prime minister, has been condemned for not attending the opening of the conference. Mark Weinberg, of the Toronto host team, slammed Harbour in public at the official opening of the event
The Toronto Local Organizing team is confident that they will host the 16th International Aids Conference successfully. Weinberg is even hoping that ground breaking actions will be taken.
August 14, 2006, 12:00
Gates, Wife Stress Urgency in Search for AIDS Prevention
By Jia-Rui Chong, LA Times Staff Writer
August 14, 2006
TORONTO - Bill and Melinda Gates, whose foundation has contributed $1.9 billion to fight AIDS, said Sunday that developing antiviral gels and pills that would allow women to protect themselves is an "urgent priority" in fighting the epidemic.
"We want to call on everyone here and around the world to help speed up what we hope will be the next big breakthrough on the fight against AIDS - the discovery of a microbicide or an oral prevention drug that can block the transmission of HIV," Bill Gates said at the opening session of the world's largest AIDS conference.
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"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."
Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. and of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, emphasized the need for such prophylactic tools to give women the means to protect themselves.
"No matter where she lives, who she is or what she does - a woman should never need her partner's permission to save her own life," he said.
The Gateses pledged to increase their funding for this research, though they did not specify by how much.
The microbicides could take the form of gels, creams or vaginal rings. Five such formulations are in advanced trials. Antiviral drugs intended for treatment after infection have already been proven to lower the risk of infection for babies born to mothers with HIV. Some of those drugs have also prevented the monkey version of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in macaques.
Researchers at UCLA have been working on microbicides and hope to make them available in about five years.
"If Gates put his voice behind it, that could be faster," said Edwin Bayrd, associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute.
Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, director of AIDS research at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said, "It's clear a vaccine is a long way off. In the absence of vaccines, we need more effective preventive measures."
Kuritzkes said he hoped resistance to studies that would test the effectiveness of antiviral drugs as a preventive measure had ebbed. He recalled that in 2004 at the last AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand, protesters were angry about a proposed study in Cambodia of these drugs, in part because they wanted a guarantee that participating women would be medically cared for after the trial.
Melinda Gates said she hoped the World Health Organization and other international agencies would develop ethical standards for such clinical trials so they could start faster and run without interruption.
She called for help from activists, saying they had shown they could provoke action. "You proved this when you pushed for new treatment," she said. "The world now needs you to push even harder for prevention."
She also encouraged governments and pharmaceutical companies to join the research.
"If all these players do their part," she said, "we will move forward, as fast as science can take us, to discoveries that can help block the transmission of HIV."
The AIDS conference, which takes place every two years, drew an estimated 24,000 participants this year, organizers said. The crowd responded to the couple's speeches with cheers and standing ovations.
The largest ever conference on AIDS began Sunday night in Toronto with calls for a long-term strategy to defeat the deadly virus
Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) said that an end to the disease was 'nowhere in sight,' at the start of the 16th International AIDS Conference.
As the global HIV/AIDS epidemic entered its 25th year, Piot said it was time to attack the root causes of the problem in order to halt the disease's spread - namely poverty, discrimination, fear of homosexuality and the repression of women.
AIDS sufferers and carers gathered for a protest march in Toronto ahead of the conference, aiming to highlight calls for more assistance for the 40 million people infected with the virus worldwide.
'Universal access to treatment is possible - now, not later,' a petition signed by many of the protestors said.
The lives of people with HIV/AIDS should take centre stage and that includes sufficient funding, the petition said.
Under the motto 'Time to Deliver,' about 24,000 participants from more than 170 countries, including aid and youth organizations, universities, research institutes, churches and UN agencies came to Toronto to attend the conference, scheduled to run until August 18.
Universal access to already existing medications to combat the disease is expected to be one of the main focuses of the conference, as highlighted by the protestors. About 90 per cent of HIV/AIDS cases are in third world countries, where only one in five sufferers have access to the medication they need.
According to UNAIDS, the United Nations organization set up to combat the disease, some 18 billion dollars will be needed to fight AIDS in 2007, rising to 22.1 billion in 2008.
German Development Aid Minister Heidemarie Wiecoreck-Zeul announced Sunday in Toronto that her government would donate 400 million euros (510 million dollars) in 2008 and again in 2009 to help combat the disease.
The United Nations Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis would receive 150 million euros from the total each year, she said.
The 400-million figure could already be reached in 2007, a ministry spokesman said, which is 100 million euros more than previously budgeted.
In addition to funding, a total of 20,000 specially trained medical staff are needed to fill the gap in the number of doctors and nurses required to help people living with the virus, the petition by protestors said. The lack of doctors is one of the leading problems in combatting the disease.
The petition signatories are also demanding 1 billion voluntary and free HIV tests.
Another demand is that the pharmaceutical industry lower its prices. For example, Mexico and India are middle-income countries, but anti-AIDS medicines are beyond the reach of many people in those countries.
More licences to produce drugs and cheaper generic brands would be of great help in poorer countries, according to the protestors.
Among the high profile participants scheduled to speak at the conference are Bill and Melinda Gates, whose foundation is among one of the largest donors to AIDS projects.
More information on the conference can be found at www.aids2006.org.
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