Harper, Gates announce AIDS vaccine initiative

Even to a hard-core Mac fan-boy Canadian living in America, this is very cool:

Canada will be the site of a new facility to manufacture and test vaccines to fight HIV/AIDS, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates announced Tuesday in Ottawa.

Ottawa will contribute $111 million toward the new Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, while the Microsoft founder, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will donate $28 million.

Harper and Gates signed the multimillion-dollar agreement during a news conference on Parliament Hill.

The new initiative will accelerate the pace of finding a vaccine to fight the virus that causes AIDS, and move possible vaccines to the clinical trial stage more quickly, said Harper.

"HIV/AIDS is one of the most heartwrenching health crises the world has ever seen," said Harper. "It is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time."

Gates said: "AIDS is a very tough problem. The long-term solution is a vaccine."

Gates sidestepped a question on whether he believed Harper, who didn't attend the 2006 Internatlonal AIDS Conference in Toronto, was making the announcement in a bid for support ahead of an expected spring election.

"I'm glad to hear that putting research money into AIDS makes people politically more popular," said Gates, drawing laughter from those at the news conference.

Efforts aim to prevent AIDS

Worth about $50 billion US, Gates is the world's richest man. He has endowed the foundation, named after himself and his wife, with $24 billion US to support global health, library and education initiatives around the world.

Through their foundation, Gates and his wife Melinda have donated more than $500 million US to AIDS, as well as tuberculosis and malaria.

Speaking to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge last week, Gates said he expects a vaccine will be developed in his lifetime.

Gates will address the Canadian Chamber of Commerce later Tuesday.

Roughly 65 million people around the world have been diagnosed with AIDS since it was first identified in 1981. The United Nations estimates close to three million people died from the disease in 2006.

Original Story at: CBC.ca.

Grace,

Des