Bill Gates speaks at international AIDS conference

The man behind Microsoft, Bill Gates, recently spoke at this year's International AIDS Conference to raise awareness of medical advancements towards helping those with HIV. In an effort to promote this goal at the global level, he established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife, which specializes in helping individuals in developing countries lead healthy lives.

During his speech, he highlighted treatment successes that have taken place over the last six years, which could lead to slowing the spread of this virus throughout the world. Gates also stressed the importance of access to cost-effective tools that may help prevent HIV, including male circumcision and treatments for mother-to-infant transmission.

He also suggested that increasing investments made in vaccine development and other preventative measures could help fight the spread of HIV. Gates stated that "we need to speed up the development process for new prevention tools, and when we get results from these studies, we should be ready to act on them right away."

Finally, he emphasized the importance of preventing the spread of the virus among high-risk populations, including young people and injection drug users.

"If you are afraid to match your prevention efforts to the populations at the highest risk, then you're wasting money, and that costs lives," he stated.