Elton John & Bill Gates attend AIDS conference in Durban

The progress and advances made in the research against the AIDS pandemic is the epicentre of this year international AIDS conference underway in South Africa.

International artist Elton John and Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined thousands of delegates at the conference in Durban.

The two spoke about the work of the foundations they founded to tackle the disease.

“If you give people love and compassion and you include them like LGBT people, like intravenous drugs users, like sex workers, like transgender people. You don’t leave them behind, you leave no one behind in the human race, you include them all. If you don’t, this campaign to end AIDS will be a disaster,” said Elton John.

“I am an optimist, I’m an optimist that we can bring about the end of AIDS, I’m an optimist about the tools, I’m an optimist about the incredible dedication by the people I see here. So we need to bring that all together, all of those strengths all the people that are committed to this. Only by doing that, in a way that’s I think proving more difficult than we expected, but only… but if we do that then we can turn this promise of an AIDS free world from an aspiration into a reality,” Bill Gates said.

The conference began on July 18th and will end on the 22nd.

It is aimed at improving the fight against HIV and AIDS. The UN has set a target of ending the AIDS pandemic by 2030.