Critics here and abroad have criticized India for not tackling AIDS early and aggressively enough.

But is there research tackling AIDS and cancer simultaneously?

While other drug companies use these techniques to tackle AIDS, malaria and similar illnesses, Parhelion is working to develop safer vaccines for animals.

Not least, tackling AIDS will be a challenge.

Dr. Dobkin of Columbia-Presbyterian said a bureaucracy has grown up around the issue without taking concrete steps to tackle AIDS yet.

South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, has been criticized at home and abroad for being slow to aggressively tackle AIDS.

At the end of the year, the government announced a draft framework to tackle AIDS and pledged to improve antiretroviral drug access.

But he chided nations that were way behind in tackling AIDS - though not, in every case, by name.

The initiatives would tackle AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases common in developing countries.

The loans are also likely to increase an active debate among groups interested in development over the best way to tackle AIDS.