Gates to Give AIDS Fund $100 Million

Computer billionaire Bill Gates said Tuesday that his charity foundation will donate $100 million to a global fund that aims to stop the spread of AIDS and other diseases ravaging developing countries.

“As we reflect on 20 years of AIDS and the 22 million lives it already has claimed, we believe that there is no higher priority than stopping transmission of this deadly disease,” the Microsoft founder said in a statement.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will pay the money over an unspecified number of years to support an anti-AIDS campaign launched in April by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Annan has proposed an anti-AIDS war chest for poor countries, estimating that $7 billion to $10 billion a year in additional spending is needed to combat the disease in the developing world along with malaria and tuberculosis.

At U.N. headquarters, a spokesman for the secretary-general said the Gates Foundation’s gift will serve as a powerful example to other private donors and governments and “will probably also save millions of lives.”

“It is only through a truly global partnership, bringing together governments, corporations, foundations, civil society and individuals, that we can hope to pool the leadership and raise the resources needed to defeat this scourge,” said Annan spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva.

Officials of the foundation, which spent more than $1 billion on health projects worldwide last year, also urged governments, private firms and nonprofit groups to follow its example and support Annan’s fund.

“This is only part of a comprehensive and unprecedented effort that is needed to stop this pandemic,” said Patty Stonesifer, foundation co-chair.

President Bush said last month that the United States would give $200 million to the global fund.