With about $28.3 billion in charity to fight infectious diseases, Bill Gates has made a critical contribution to saving lives across the world, some six million to be more specific. But there’s still a lot of work to be done in health policy, and Gates knows that. Nothing illustrates that fact better than the Ebola crisis.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , Bill Gates has plenty to say about public policy, including gun rights and income inequality , but he spends far more time involved in health policy and fighting disease.
Gates gave the keynote address at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on November 2 to talk about that focus. He was mostly there to discuss Malaria, but he also talked about the Ebola outbreak and what it has taught us. Particularly, that the world is horribly unprepared for an epidemic.
According to the Wall Street Journal , Bill Gates gave this ominous warning.
“The world as a whole doesn’t have the preparedness for epidemics, and we’ve had a few flu scares that got us to do some minor things, but not enough. If this thing [Ebola] had been twice as transmissive, we’d be in a lot of trouble, and there are agents that have a real chance of coming on in the next several decades that are far more transmissive than this is. What’s to stop some form of SARS showing up?”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Gates was referring to SARS II, which emerges in impoverished areas.
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has traditionally dedicated itself to easily-treated infectious diseases that still persist in the developing world. Although the foundation gave $50 million to fight Ebola , that pales in comparison to the $200 million it pledged to fight malaria this year. As Bill Gates explained, Ebola is nevertheless an important subject for the foundation, as it diverts resources away from fighting their number one enemy: polio.
“This disease, not only does it kill directly, it also shuts down health systems. If this thing had spread throughout West Africa, among other things you could throw out the window is the incredible progress we’ve made on polio.”
So what does Bill Gates suggest for preparing for the big one?
Gates touched on three things: better disease surveillance, stronger primary health systems (especially in developing countries), and more money in researching new drugs and vaccines.
He says surveillance systems could be the low hanging fruit.
“With new tools, doing broad disease surveillance that’s better than we have been doing is it a very doable thing. You can do a pretty good job literally for hundreds of millions, not billions of dollars a year.”
As for the strengthening primary care, Bill Gates pointed out that Rwanda and Ethiopia have already shown that it can be done for a relatively low cost. And the Gates Foundation continues to pour money into researching vaccines, including support to GlaxoSmithKline for an Ebola vaccine.
The Ebola crisis may prompt international organizations and governments to adopt some of Bill Gates ideas. Hopefully, it will be enough to stop a potential epidemic in the future.
[Image Credit: World Economic Forum /Andy Mettler/Wikimedia Commons]