Gates gives $25 million for Nigeria AIDS research

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Harvard University's School of Public Health said Monday it received $25 million from Microsoft Corp.'s co-founder and chairman Bill Gates and his wife to study AIDS prevention in Nigeria.

The grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was the largest single private grant in the school's history, the school said.

The Nigerian AIDS prevention initiative will begin by profiling the nature of HIV infection in Africa's most populous country, said Barry Bloom, the school's dean.

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The school already operates a similar program in Senegal.

"The object, based on our experience in Senegal, is to prevent infection from getting to the level of 25 to 30 percent as in other African nations," Bloom said in a statement. Senegal's infection rates have remained stable at 2 percent.

Preventing the spread of deadly diseases among poor children is a chief priority of the Seattle-based Gates Foundation, which has an asset base of $21 billion.

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
UNAIDS - The Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS
Medical Research Council of South Africa

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