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Hoping to end the HIV epidemic with more money for more lifesaving drugs is unrealistic, philanthropist Bill Gates told attendees at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna on Monday."If we keep spending our resources in exactly the same way that we do today, we'll fall even further behind in our ability to treat everyone," Gates said. "Right now, there simply isn't enough money to treat our way out of this epidemic," said Gates, whose Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the world's largest single private donor fighting HIV.
Instead, he encouraged innovations in HIV prevention and treatment, such as shifting some clinical care from physicians to nurses, encouraging male circumcision, and finding ways to lower the price of medications.
"If we could limit the delivery and administrative costs to no more than twice the cost of the drugs themselves, then the total cost of treatment could get down to $300 per patient per year. For the same amount of money we spend today, we could treat more than twice as many people," Gates said.
In a keynote address, former President Bill Clinton defended the US record in addressing HIV and put the blame for flat funding on the international economic meltdown. Protesters have decried the $5.7 billion in global AIDS spending called for in President Barack Obama's 2011 fiscal year budget, noting it is just $236 million more than the allocation in the Bush administration's last fiscal year.
"I completely understand why the advocates for greater AIDS funding have loudly protested," Clinton said. "But I do not think it is either fair or accurate to say the president has gone back on his promises as if this was a callous walking away," Clinton said.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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