(WB) Gates gift aimed at vaccine effort: $25 million may be largest single private contribution to AIDS

(WB) Gates gift aimed at vaccine effort: $25 million may be largest single private contribution to AIDS

The Washington Blade - Friday, May 7, 1999
Kai Wright

Microsoft chair Bill Gates gave on Monday what is believed to be the largest single private contribution to AIDS -- $25 million -- for a project searching for an AIDS vaccine. Gates donated the money, from his four-year-old William H. Gates Foundation, as an extension of the charity's funding of vaccinations for children in poor countries.

Paul Didonata, head of Funders Concerned About AIDS, said he believes the gift is "by far" the largest ever given by a single private donor to any AIDS program or received by a nongovernmental AIDS program from any funding source. Didonata's group works with private grant givers to encourage them to donate to AIDS projects.

"That's a massive, massive gift," Didonata said.

"Melinda and I want our children -- and all children -- to grow up in a world without AIDS," Gates said in a statement announcing his gift. "Vaccines are one of the most far-reaching and effective technologies of our time. A widely distributed vaccine can help make the goal of a world without AIDS a reality. Shortening the time it takes to find a vaccine can save millions of lives."

Gates gave the money to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The project, founded in 1996, links scientists from countries around the world to work together in finding an AIDS vaccine that will be affordable and accessible for developing countries as well as for the world's more wealthy nations. In addition to financing scientific research, the project works to raise political and public awareness of the need for an AIDS vaccine.

The project's president, Seth Berkley, said Gates's gift doubled the amount of money the project has raised thus far, bringing their total funds to $50 million.
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