Bill and Melinda Gates urge investment in global healthcare

"Dollar for dollar, global health is America's best investment for saving lives,” said Bill Gates. "U.S.-supported global health programs are saving and improving the lives of millions of people."

The government spends $8 billion on global healthcare annually, a portion of the 1 percent of the total budget. The amount is five times what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spends.

Underscoring the importance of federal support, Gates stressed that the administration should continue spending on global healthcare despite economic downturn and soaring fiscal deficit.

Unfolding success stories
Highlighting the success of government initiatives to improve healthcare worldwide, Gates stated that approximately 1.2 million lives have been saved under the program called the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The AIDS relief program was launched in 2003 under the Bush administration.

The initiative to prevent deaths from malaria has resulted in saving 32 million lives till last year.

Further, government grants to fight Malaria have helped in bringing 88 million beds with mosquito nets to the children most vulnerable to the disease.

The project called GAVI Alliance has helped immunize children, thus saving 3.4 million lives.

He added, "U.S. support has already helped to reduce deaths of young children by more than 50 percent in the past 50 years. If we keep up our commitment, it's possible to cut child mortality in half again."

Stressing the importance of vaccination
But Melinda and Bill Gates are hopeful that success achieved in the past will help in garnering support to tackle the existing health issues.

In order to highlight the success of government's spending on global healthcare, they launched a program called The Gates' Living Proof Project.

They further stressed the need for developing new vaccines to prevent the spread of diseases like AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis etc.

The Gates Foundation has been widely known for their vaccine initiative. The foundation had in the past made efforts to develop rotavirus vaccine to combat diarrhea in Nicaragua.

But there were many problems that came in the way. The vaccines had to be kept under low temperature but warm conditions in Nicaragua, Africa posed a problem. Further, the vaccine package was too large to be carried efficiently.

Though providing aid to the poor nations has been difficult, the Gates Foundation has not lost hope. Developing an AID vaccine is their new long term goal.