Article

2006-01-28 International-UN-NGOs

Britain, Nigeria and US software tycoon Bill Gates have unveiled a $56bn plan to prevent 14m tuberculosis deaths over the next decade.

Good idea. Make sure you use Islamic serum, though, otherwise it's not gonna work in Nigeria.

Speaking at the launch at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Gates committed himself to tripling his own foundation's funding against TB from $300m to a total of $900m by 2015. Mr Gates, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown urged business and political leaders to back the new programme.

I'm wondering how much is going to be raked off by the pols and how much will actually buy treatment and immunization...

The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis aims to increase access to control programs and spur research on new ways to fight the disease, which was declared an emergency by 46 African countries last year. Mr Brown called on the G8 to formally designate TB - which kills 5,000 people daily - a top priority at its next meeting in July. $47bn of the cost of the plan would be for control of the disease and $9bn for research and development. TB is still one of the world's deadliest diseases and campaigners say it is responsible for killing one person every 15 seconds. 15 million patients in India account for nearly one third of the world's cases. If global controls are not strengthened, an estimated 1bn people will be infected by 2020 and 36m people worldwide could die.
Few people today know how devastating the plague of TB used to be. It influenced entire generations with its unpredictable cruelty. The prospect of antibiotic-resistant strains is frightening.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-01-28 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I remember sitting in the Abecorn restaraunt (well known for a terrorist bombing shortly afterwards) in Belfast in 1972. A man at the next table kept making a slight cough. The Irish girl with me, told me it was what they called the 'polite disease' = TB.

I'm no fan of BG, but kudos to him for helping tackle this scourge.

Posted by phil_b">phil_b 2006-01-28 05:12|| http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/]">[http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/] 2006-01-28 05:12|| Front Page Top

#2 Somebody at the CIA should start the rumor that the vaccine is made from pigs' blood.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-01-28 08:57|| 2006-01-28 08:57|| Front Page Top

#3 No Nimble, let's not do that.

TB is one of the world's biggest killers, right up there with malaria and typhus. Anything we can do to control TB rebounds to our benefit. If Bill Gates wants to spend on money on this, great, he's the kind of guy who will make people accountable.

Posted by Steve White">Steve White 2006-01-28 12:54|| 2006-01-28 12:54|| Front Page Top

#4 That's what we're going to do before this war is over. The sooner we start, the sooner the war is over.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-01-28 13:53|| 2006-01-28 13:53|| Front Page Top

#5 antibiotic-resistant TB is one of the gifts from Mexican and Central American Illegals....remember that

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-01-28 13:59|| 2006-01-28 13:59|| Front Page Top

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