THE TWO BILLS SEE 'A HAPPY ENDING'

Clinton and Gates Are Optimistic 'The Human Material' Will Triumph

TORONTO - AIDS may be the greatest medical disaster to befall humanity but the disease will be vanquished and a "happy ending" is in the offing, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates insisted yesterday in one of the most hopeful notes struck yet at the International AIDS Conference.

The former U.S. president and the Microsoft chairman conceded that the turning point in the pandemic has still not been reached -- and may not come until scientists develop a vaccine or some other kind of preventive tool.

But they cautioned against despair in the face of shockingly high infection rates that are ravaging Africa and other parts of the developing world.

Mr. Clinton, whose charitable foundation is largely focused on the HIV/AIDS cause, said visiting endemic regions and meeting people there gives him optimism for a future free of the disease.

On a recent trip to Liberia, a country all but destroyed by civil war, he said, the college students he met at a town hall meeting were as bright and ambitious as any he has encountered.

"The source of optimism is the human material," he said. "There is no shortage of intelligence, effort, dreams and drive anywhere in the world."

Mr. Gates called HIV/AIDS the "worst medical disaster ever in history," but said the conference, with its gathering of 24,000 scientists, doctors and activists, gives him great hope.

"There is a lot of energy in here," he said. "Overall, this is a story that will have a happy ending."

Their message was a counter to the continuous flow of bad news about the pandemic. About 45 million people live with the virus and almost three million died last year, the UNAIDS organization estimates.

Mr. Clinton admitted that it is still a "rocky road" and probably will be until the discovery of a vaccine, considered to be years away.

"AIDS is not a problem where we've turned the corner yet," added Mr. Gates. A vaccine, an effective preventive regimen using existing HIV drugs or the advent of microbicides -- gel or cream that women can apply to stave off infection -- would probably bring about that turning point, he said.

Mr. Clinton's appearance at the conference with Mr. Gates outdrew any of the myriad other sessions as hundreds packed a cavernous meeting hall and many more were turned away. Scores of delegates crowded around the ex-president as he left, snapping photographs and handing him their conference programmes to be autographed.

Richard Gere, Hollywood actor and AIDS activist, later added to the star power that has become a trademark of these events, appearing at a news conference to tout a project in India he helped launch. The program aims to increase HIV awareness through a local TV station that weaves disease messages into its programming. Mr. Gere later spoke at a session that discussed generally how the media can be used to spread the word about HIV and its prevention.

As the conference opened on Sunday, Mr. Gates and his wife, Melinda, took an indirect jab at U.S. government policies tieing HIV/AIDS funding to the teaching of abstinence, a strong stand against prostitution and opposition to needle exchange for drug addicts.

Yesterday Mr. Gates took pains to promote the Bush administration's dedication of $15-billion over five years to HIV around the world, noting that it has helped bring treatment to tens of thousands of patients.

"This program has done a lot more good than harm," he said.

Mr. Clinton echoed Mr. Gates' comments about the Bush program, then found himself defending his own record on AIDS while in the White House.

He rejected the suggestion from an audience member that he had given the issue short shrift, noting the death rate from the disease in the States dropped substantially on his watch and the U.S. contributed a quarter of all foreign, AIDS-related assistance.

"I did make a lot of mistakes when I was president, but this wasn't one of them," he said to laughter from the audience.