The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday announced that it will award Mechai Viravaidya, one of Thailand's leading HIV/AIDS advocates and former public health minister, and the Population and Community Development Association the Gates Award for Global Health, the Boston Globe reports. The $1 million award -- to be presented on Thursday at the Global Health Council's 2007 Conference in Washington, D.C. -- is the world's largest award in international health, the Globe reports. Mechai and his organization were among 90 groups nominated for the award, the Globe reports (Donnelly, Boston Globe, 5/29).

Mechai in early April was appointed to design a new federal HIV prevention plan to target the country's youth. According to UNAIDS, Thailand has an adult HIV prevalence of about 1.4%, but a World Bank report released last year found that an additional 7.7 million people would be HIV-positive if the country had not implemented effective prevention programs in the 1990s. Much of…