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Bill Gates hopes health will be an Obama priority

Aarti Dhar

— PHOTO: PTI

SHOWING CONCERN: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discusses health issues with co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates during a meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday. They discussed areas of cooperation between his foundation and the Health Ministry.

NEW DELHI: Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hopes that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama would continue to keep health a priority issue despite a challenging budget.

“I hope the new President would be able to provide resources to India to address health,” Mr. Gates told journalists here on Wednesday. Expecting an economic contraction before the U.S. got back into action, he, however, did not see huge cutbacks on allocations for health. “It is true that funding would depend on the health of the economy. Clearly 1990s and early 2000s saw a good economic growth in the U.S. as well as India, but the U.S. economy would see a setback for a few years to come,” he said.

Which of the two Presidential candidates did he support? Mr. Gates said both had made serious commitments to health-related issues. “I do not campaign for a candidate, but take a position on issues.”

Mr. Gates cast his vote four days in advance through absentee ballot.

Appreciating India’s efforts in polio eradication, tobacco ban and\ preventing HIV/AIDS, Mr. Gates – whose Foundation supports Avahan in India – expressed confidence that polio would be successfully eradicated with India leading the way. He asked India to consider adding new tools with potential to strengthen the polio eradication programme.

Mr. Gates said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and its partner agencies were holding serious discussions on introducing the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) in some regions of the country.

“We are going to ensure that there are enough funds to introduce this in certain areas of the country where polio is endemic and eradication has been difficult,” he said.

Asked how long he expected polio eradication from India to take, he said: “In India, polio was almost eradicated two-three years back but it re-surfaced, which shows that more needs to be done.”

He pointed out that 2009 would be a crucial year for polio in India and in the next couple of years the disease would hopefully be driven out of the country.

In 2008, India accounted for 35 per cent (496) of all polio cases worldwide (1,431). This time last year, India accounted for 51 per cent (340) of all the cases worldwide (669). Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounted for 96.6 per cent (844) of polio cases in India in 2007.

PTI reports:

Mr. Gates met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed areas of cooperation between his Foundation and the Health Ministry. “Bill Gates met the PM and discussed areas of support between the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” a Prime Minister’s Office statement said.

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