Post by Charles Martel on Jan 23, 2009 7:29:15 GMT
$635 Million Is Donated to Fight Polio
The global effort to eradicate polio, which began more than two decades ago and has suffered repeated setbacks, will receive an additional $635 million in an effort to finish the job over the next five years.
The money will be used to intensify vaccination campaigns in northern India and northern Nigeria, the two regions that account for more than 80 percent of the remaining cases of the paralyzing infection. In addition to those two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only others where "wild" polio virus still circulates.
Providing the new infusion of cash are Rotary International, the service organization that first proposed the eradication of polio and has raised $825 million toward the goal; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and the governments of Germany and Britain.
[...]
The $255 million Gates pledged comes 14 months after a $100 million donation his foundation made in 2007 as the virus resurged in India. Since then, he and his wife have committed themselves to eradicating malaria, a task that will be much harder than ending polio.
More at: Washington Post
Hats off to Bill Gates, Rotary International, and the British and German governments.
Meanwhile....
The global effort to eradicate polio, which began more than two decades ago and has suffered repeated setbacks, will receive an additional $635 million in an effort to finish the job over the next five years.
The money will be used to intensify vaccination campaigns in northern India and northern Nigeria, the two regions that account for more than 80 percent of the remaining cases of the paralyzing infection. In addition to those two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only others where "wild" polio virus still circulates.
Providing the new infusion of cash are Rotary International, the service organization that first proposed the eradication of polio and has raised $825 million toward the goal; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and the governments of Germany and Britain.
[...]
The $255 million Gates pledged comes 14 months after a $100 million donation his foundation made in 2007 as the virus resurged in India. Since then, he and his wife have committed themselves to eradicating malaria, a task that will be much harder than ending polio.
More at: Washington Post
Hats off to Bill Gates, Rotary International, and the British and German governments.
Meanwhile....