Bill Gates Opens AIDS Conference

Gates Foundation Donates $500 Million To Global Fund Before Toronto Meeting

(AP)  "So there's progress on these but the pace has been too slow."

His wife, Melinda, stressed the need to use and make more widely available the tools known to stop the spread of the virus.

"Today fewer than one in five people who are at high risk for HIV have access to things like condoms, clean needles, education and testing," she said. "That's something that simply needs to change.

"One of the things that we fundamentally believe about HIV the more that we've been involved in this is you have to put the power in the hands of women. That is going to be the way to change this epidemic."

Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean — a native of Haiti — recalled the stigma around HIV/AIDS to which people of her homeland were subjected, saying it is time to change attitudes about the disease in all corners of the world.

"AIDS knows no boundaries, nor has it any regard for our prejudices or the ways in which we ostracize and abandon one another," Jean said. "Is that not reason enough to put those prejudices to rest and come together to fight this universal threat?

"We must be relentless in our fight against discrimination, which breeds fear and ignorance. We must ensure that people living with this disease are not treated like pariahs."

Frika Chia Iskandar, an HIV-positive woman from Jakarta, said "stigma and discrimination are still happening, noting that a dentist refused to treat her last year. "It's still there. Nothing much has changed."

The conference has brought an estimated 24,000 delegates and 3,000 journalists from around the world to Toronto for the biggest gathering in the now-biennial meeting's 21-year history.

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, the crown prince and princess of Norway, UN AIDS for Africa envoy Stephen Lewis, and actors Richard Gere, Sandra Oh and Olympia Dukakis are scheduled to attend.

The two-hour opening was to be followed by a concert featuring Alicia Keys, Barenaked Ladies, the Blue Man Group, Our Lady Peace, Amanda Marshall and Chantal Kreviazuk.

Conference workshops and plenary sessions officially begin Monday, and will deal with a wide range of issues — from scientific research to caring for those with HIV/AIDS to preventing the spread of the virus, which has killed 25 million people in the last 25 years and infected about 40 million worldwide.