Bill Gates to affirm resolve to root out polio

DAILY TIMES

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates will this week deliver the annual BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture in which he will spell out his commitment to rid the world of poliovirus, which can cause paralysis and even death within hours. Medical experts have demanded concrete steps to eradicate poliovirus from affected countries of the world. According to them, it is high time for making a strong strategy to protect children from this crippling disease. Bill Gates is the single most influential voice in global health, so when he turns his attention to an issue, it is worth listening. Through the Gates Foundation, Gates and his wife Melinda have already given away nearly $30 billion of their fortune and there are tens of billions more in the pipeline. He has spoken of his passionate belief in the power of vaccines and his determination to defeat polio. In his lecture Gates will liken the pace of innovation in computers with the fight against polio. He will say, “In the late 1970s we had a dream of giving everybody access to computer technology – a vision of a computer on every desktop. Now there is a computer in every pocket. The pace of innovation keeps getting faster. The same is true of polio. It was first recognised at least 4,000 years ago, but it was just 200 years ago we figured out it’s contagious – just 100 years ago we learned it’s a virus. Just 50 years ago we developed the vaccine to prevent it. Just 25 years ago we resolved to eradicate it.” But Gates will also acknowledge that the final push against polio is proving extremely difficult. “I can say without reservation that the last mile is not only the hardest mile, it’s also much harder than I expected,” he said. The killing of nine health workers last month was a reminder of the challenges facing those trying to chase down the virus and protect every last child. Part of polio’s danger is its utter portability – it can be spread across borders by one infected traveller, who can continue to transfer virus for weeks. Only last week an emergency vaccination programme was ordered in Cairo after samples of the poliovirus were found in sewage – the strain matches that in Pakistan. The oral polio vaccine can –in very rare cases – trigger polio. The World Health Organisation says this happens in one in 2.5 million first doses of vaccine. Over the past decade 15 billion doses of polio vaccine drops have been given and there have been 200 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. But with naturally occurring polio cases now so low there is a minority which claims the oral live vaccine is causing significant harm. This is a now or never moment – exterminate polio from the planet over the next few years or face a humiliating retreat which could see the virus re-emerge in scores of countries. Gates recognises what is at stake for global health: “Polio eradication is a proving ground, a test. It will reveal what human beings are capable of, and suggest how ambitious we can be about our future.”