A three-member delegation representing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation met Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to chalk out a draft plan for the flow of grants for the prevention of AIDS in the state. According to sources in the Health Department, a centralised committee based in Delhi, which will be responsible for coordinating with the partners, will manage the grant. The committee will allocate grants evenly to the implementing agencies like community organisations, government and the private sector.

Till now the Foundation pledged grants to the tune of $ 41 million to India, out of which $25 million had been earmarked for Andhra Pradesh. The state has thus cornered more than half of the total grant.

The three-member team of the Gates Foundation also interacted with the officials of the AP State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) and reviewed various developmental programmes initiated by the state government to control the incidence of AIDS. The Bill Gates Foundation programme in the state includes child vaccination, women and child welfare, education and AIDS awareness campaigns.

The committee will assist APSACS in establishing voluntary counseling and testing centers (VCTCs) in the state, which has set up several such centres and are already functioning. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates visited Hyderabad in November last year and pledged an additional $100 million for the country, exclusively for AIDS control. This amount will be spent spread over a period of five years. The Foundation later set up a committee based in Delhi to work out modalities for the disbursal of the grant. Apart from AP, the Foundation is planning to provide funds to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where AIDS cases are found in large numbers. The Foundation will also take up the vaccination programme in the two states.