In a time of economic distress, Bill Gates has donated through its foundation $255 million for the eradication of polio in the countries where the disease still remains a problem such as Nigeria, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.

 

The money will add to a donation made by the government of Germany and the United Kingdom of $280 million and another one made by Rotary International, a longtime advocate for eradicating polio.

 

Since 1988, when the World Health Organization launched its campaign against polio, roughly $6 billion have been spent on its eradication.

Gates hopes the money will halve the number of children getting polio every year, saving an additional five million children’s lives annually in the following 20 years. In 1960, almost 20 million children died annually before age 5 because of the disease, he noted. The number today is around 10 million children, although there are more children today than in 1960.

 

Gates also believes that the disease will soon be eradicated and deaths from malaria, another deadly disease, can fall by half by 2015. He is also confident that a successful malaria vaccine will be available in the following five years while an AIDS vaccine in 10 or more years from now.

 

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus, which invades the nervous system. It can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours after infection. The disease affects mainly children under five years of age. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs.

 

One in 200 infections with the virus leads to irreversible paralysis. Also 5-10 percent of these infections end tragically when breathing muscles become immobilized.