Bill Gates and his mixed up global health agenda
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Gates, whose foundation made its first contribution to the campaign in 1999, is personally committed to seeing those countries polio free. In a public lecturesponsored by the BBC a few weeks ago the Microsoft founder said that delivering the polio vaccine to all children in the remaining countries is currently the Gates Foundation's top goal. It has given well over a billion dollars to the cause and, according to the London Telegraph, will spend another $1.8 billion on polio eradication over the next six years -- almost a third of the global effort.
Why polio? After all, there were only 215 cases worldwide last year and they were all in three countries. Some health experts have argued that the present levels are probably as good as it gets and that it is time to direct more resources to other endemic diseases, such as diarrhoea, malaria and measles, that ravage the infant populations of third world countries.
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The couple undoubtedly have a genuine commitment to giving the world's poorest a hand up through improving their health. But they also are thoroughly committed to global birth control. Melinda Gates upped her profile on the issue significantly last year, recording a TED talk in front of an international audience and partnering with the British government in a new push “to deliver more modern family planning tools to more women in the world’s poorest countries”. She has even, recently,promoted a hormonal contraceptive injection (DMPA) that may facilitate, according to research published in 2011, the transmission of HIV in Africa.
Bill Gates in his BBC talk noted that one spinoff of improving basic health and infant survival is that, "when parents are more confident their children will survive they tend to decide to have fewer children, gradually bringing population growth down and leading to all sorts of beneficial effects."
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Read more: mercatornet.com
Gates, whose foundation made its first contribution to the campaign in 1999, is personally committed to seeing those countries polio free. In a public lecturesponsored by the BBC a few weeks ago the Microsoft founder said that delivering the polio vaccine to all children in the remaining countries is currently the Gates Foundation's top goal. It has given well over a billion dollars to the cause and, according to the London Telegraph, will spend another $1.8 billion on polio eradication over the next six years -- almost a third of the global effort.
Why polio? After all, there were only 215 cases worldwide last year and they were all in three countries. Some health experts have argued that the present levels are probably as good as it gets and that it is time to direct more resources to other endemic diseases, such as diarrhoea, malaria and measles, that ravage the infant populations of third world countries.
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The couple undoubtedly have a genuine commitment to giving the world's poorest a hand up through improving their health. But they also are thoroughly committed to global birth control. Melinda Gates upped her profile on the issue significantly last year, recording a TED talk in front of an international audience and partnering with the British government in a new push “to deliver more modern family planning tools to more women in the world’s poorest countries”. She has even, recently,promoted a hormonal contraceptive injection (DMPA) that may facilitate, according to research published in 2011, the transmission of HIV in Africa.
Bill Gates in his BBC talk noted that one spinoff of improving basic health and infant survival is that, "when parents are more confident their children will survive they tend to decide to have fewer children, gradually bringing population growth down and leading to all sorts of beneficial effects."
..........
Read more: mercatornet.com
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