Bill Gates praises Pakistan’s efforts to wipe out polio
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US billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates has said that earlier this year he made his first trip ever to Pakistan to learn more about the country’s incredible efforts to wipe out polio, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
“At the time of my visit in February, Pakistan had gone more than a year without a single child being paralyzed by the crippling disease. This was a huge achievement made possible by the skill and dedication of the polio program’s leadership and its more than 300,000 polio workers.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8c9Imi8tc
Bill Gates said that their energy and enthusiasm reminded me of what I saw in India and Nigeria when those countries were traveling the final mile to eliminate polio within their borders.
He said that it is heartbreaking to see these three children paralyzed by a preventable virus that has been eliminated in nearly every part of the world. (The government of Pakistan is providing rehabilitation services and other support to help the children and their families.)
“At the same time, the emergence of these new cases was not entirely unexpected given the challenges of wiping out the virus in one of the most challenging places on Earth. The border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the cases were detected, struggles with insecurity and misinformation that can sometimes prevent vaccinators from reaching every child who needs the polio vaccine,” he added.