AIDS Buffett's donation is 'great news' in search for vaccine

Bill Gates' wife said finding an AIDS vaccine is her 'fondest dream.'
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Billionaire Warren Buffett's donation of most of his fortune to the Bill & amp; Melinda Gates Foundation is potentially good news for AIDS vaccine research, but the scientific challenges facing that effort are as daunting as ever.
More than two decades after Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler proclaimed that an AIDS vaccine was but two years away from testing, prospects for finding an effective one lie mostly in the realm of wishful thinking.
The need for such a vaccine is compelling. UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, estimates that 4.1 million people last year were newly infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Worldwide, 39 million people are carrying the virus.
Optimism
So when Melinda Gates, the wife of the Microsoft chairman, told reporters in New York on Monday that an AIDS vaccine remains her "fondest dream," there was reason to be optimistic that a healthy portion of Buffett's billions would find its way to research in that field.
"You don't get a lot of good news in the AIDS field, but doubling the size of the Gates foundation is right up there in the great news category," said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition in New York.
Buffett, the founder of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has pledged to donate $31 billon to the Gates foundation, which already has assets of $29 billion and a track record of grant-making for AIDS prevention and improving the health of the world's poor.