Moreover, recent efforts to expand support for third-world health programs by industrialized nations have been disappointing. A special United Nations session on HIV and AIDS in June failed to gain commitments from donor nations to higher treatment goals and funding levels. And, at their July summit, leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations sidestepped a proposal for a multibillion-dollar advance market commitment fund to support development of new vaccines.

Fortunately, private donors have remained generous. The Gates Foundation announced in July that it will award $287 million in grants over five years to 16 scientific teams around the world that aim to develop the long-sought AIDS vaccine. The subsequent announcement that Warren Buffett will donate $31 billion to the Gates Foundation is likely to further expand the organization's support for multiple research efforts. Researchers believe that if governmental aid programs matched these levels, many new treatments would emerge fairly quickly.