NEW YORK – Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in New York and reiterated the Foundation’s continuous support and partnership with Pakistan during this challenging time.
Bill Gates expressed his concern for the people of Pakistan following the floods. He affirmed that the Gates Foundation would continue its current support including the disaster relief efforts in flood-affected areas of Balochistan and Sindh.
The Prime Minister and Bill Gates discussed the impact of the floods on immunization and maternal health services, and polio eradication in particular.
On polio eradication, they discussed that eradication efforts are facing a challenging situation because of the floods, especially after a recent rise in the number of wild polio cases.
The prime minister reaffirmed the government’s resolve to pursue the campaign relentlessly.
They agreed to continue their collaboration with polio partners to urgently reach vulnerable children with polio vaccines through the remainder of 2022 and prevent the disease re-establishing itself in Pakistan’s major cities.
Bill Gates thanked the Prime Minister for his continued prioritization of polio eradication.
The prime minister and Bill Gates also spoke of how the polio program is using its robust infrastructure to support the acute phase of the flood response, including deploying its surveillance system to monitor for malaria, dengue, and water-borne disease outbreaks as well as helping to deliver other life-saving vaccines to children.
The polio program, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is currently conducting 1,200 health camps in the worst flood-affected districts across Pakistan.
They also exchanged views on the need to continue their close partnership together to ensure Pakistan can continue to make progress on health and development including for enhancing agricultural resilience and rebuilding sustainable infrastructure that can withstand future climate shocks.
