GABORONE, Sept 24 (AFP) - Microsoft tycoon and philanthroper Bill Gates pledged a longterm fight against the AIDS crisis Botswana Wednesday on the final leg of the world's wealthiest man tour through southern Africa.
In Botswana, the country most affected by the killer disease with an adult infection rate nearly at 40 percent, Gates and his wife Melinda highlighted the aid their foundation has awarded to fight both HIV/AIDS and malaria there.
"Certainly the partnership between us and Botswana is a long partnership. We will be helping over a long period of time and making sure that government programmes are sustainable," Gates told reporters in Gaborone.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated more than 500 million dollars in grants to African health projects, including a 50-million-dollar AIDS programme in Botswana.
He said he was encouraged by the progress made by some of the AIDS patients who are enrolled in a government antiretroviral treatment programme partly bankrolled by his funds.
However, Gates admitted, judging by "the impact of the disease, more resources are needed."
"The tragedy of AIDS is that it affects even those who are not sick of AIDS," he added, referring to Botswana's 69,000 AIDS orphans.
UNAIDS estimate that 38 percent of the country's population is infected with HIV/AIDS and that 26,000 died of AIDS in 2002.
The Gates' tour, which also took them to Mozambique and South Africa, coincided with a major international conference on AIDS in Africa being held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
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