From USA TODAY:
Half a century after the March of Dimes put the 20th century’s most feared childhood disease on the road to eradication, Bill Gates on Monday will declare polio his top priority and challenge world leaders to finish the job before the disease roars back.
“We are on the threshold of eliminating polio once and for all,” the Microsoft billionaire and philanthropist says in his 2011 annual letter, given in advance to USA TODAY and slated for public release in New York on Monday. In an interview, Gates warns, however, that outbreaks in Nigeria, Tajikistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo provide a “scary” reminder that decades of progress will be lost without sustained action.
India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan are now the only countries that have active transmission of the disease. Gates says the biggest threat to the success of the Global Polio Eradication initiative in those countries and elsewhere is a $720 million funding shortfall for this year and next. Given the stakes, Gates says he is putting the full weight of his influence on the line to rally world leaders to wipe out the disease…
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