Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is urging governments to spend more on AIDS research that could give women tools to better protect themselves.
Gates spoke in Toronto Sunday at the opening of the 16th International AIDS Conference, which has drawn 24-thousand people from around the world.
He called for delegates to speed development of a microbicide (a gel or a cream) or oral prevention drug that could block the transmission of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
Among the health care providers, scientists and politicians at the meeting are grandmothers from sub-Saharan Africa and Canada. The women discussed the impact of AIDS on their families and took part in a march to rally support for the fight against AIDS.
A United Nations report released in June said in the past 25 years, 65 million people have been infected with H.I.V.
Twenty-five-million have died of AIDS-related sicknesses. The report estimates 39-million people worldwide are living with H.I.V.