Statement from Bill Gates in Support of the United Nations' Global Polio Partners Summit

SEATTLE -- Bill Gates, Co-Founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, issued the following statement in response to the opening of the United Nations' first Global Polio Partners Summit:

"The countdown to ridding the world of polio has begun. If necessary resources and political will are devoted to polio eradication, the world can claim victory over this killer by the end of this year and certify the planet as polio free by the year 2005. World health officials have made tremendous strides in eradicating this menace from the face of the earth. As recently as 1988 there were 350,000 cases worldwide. At the end of 1999, there were only 6,000 reported cases in 30 countries, mostly in Africa and South Asia.

"We are within striking distance of completely eliminating this disease. If we can control the existing cases and prevent its spread, we can look forward to a day when no child will be its victim.

"We applaud the leadership of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Rotary International, the United Nations Foundation, Ted Turner and the many, many other organizations, government and business leaders who are convening tomorrow, drawing the world's attention to ending this disease that has brought such suffering to millions.

"My wife, Melinda, and I just got involved and decided to make polio eradication one of the primary goals of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. And once polio has been wiped out, just as smallpox was in 1977, we want to move forward to help reduce or eliminate other diseases.

"To achieve this goal, our Foundation has made a major commitment to the Global Fund for Children's Vaccines. We have also joined forces with many of our same colleagues attending the Summit who are making such remarkable strides in making vaccines accessible to all. In the 1970s, only five percent of the world's children could expect to be fully immunized. Today, the global community is vaccinating as many as 70 percent of those children.

"Some of the money will go to purchasing vaccines. At $15 per child, vaccines are one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent so many deadly and destructive diseases. Some of the money will go to continued scientific research. Our hope is for vaccines against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, which together are responsible for a third of the world's deaths.

"Our thoughts are with those in New York leading this final assault. All of us at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation honor the work of these committed organizations and the thousands of individuals in the trenches.

"We look forward to the day we can celebrate together the end of this awful disease."