Clinton and Gates Vow to Wipe Out AIDS

Posted on August 15, 2006

The National Post reports that Bill Clinton and Bill Gates are vowing to wipe out the deadly AIDS virus that is a worldwide problem. The AIDS virus has been especially devastating to African countries and other third world and developing nations.

Despite infection rates that are ravaging Africa and other parts of the developing world, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates insisted Monday a "happy ending" is in the offing and AIDS will be vanquished.
The former U.S. president and the Microsoft chairman conceded at the International AIDS Conference Monday the turning point in the pandemic has not yet been reached and may not come until scientists develop a vaccine or some other form of preventive tool. Clinton, whose charitable foundation is largely focused on the HIV/AIDS cause, said visiting endemic regions gives him optimism for a AIDS-free future.
On a recent trip to Liberia, a country nearly destroyed by civil war, the college students he met were as bright and ambitious as any he has encountered.
"The source of optimism is the human material," he said. "There is no shortage of intelligence, effort, dreams and drive anywhere in the world."

The message at the International AIDS Conference was that we have not yet turned the corner in the fight against in AIDS but that we will eventually prevail. It would be terrific to see AIDS banished from the world just like smallpox appears to be. The National Post said that on the first day of the conference Bill and Melinda Gates blasted the Bush administratio's policy of tying funds for preventing HIV to the "teaching of abstinence, a strong stand against prostitution and opposition to needle exchange for drug addicts."