Africa certified polio-free; Gates Foundation credited as primary funder of eradication effort
The World Health Organization certified the African continent free of wild poliovirus — a milestone Gates has pursued for over 25 years. The Gates Foundation contributed over $4 billion to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Wild poliovirus cases across Africa dropped from 75,000 per year in 1988 to zero in 2020, one of the most significant public health achievements in history.
Source: https://www.who.int/news/item/25-08-2020-africa-eradicates-wild-poliovirus
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Related Accomplishments
January 2026
Gates-backed World Mosquito Program reaches 16 million people protected from dengue via Wolbachia method
The World Mosquito Program — backed in part by the Gates Foundation — announced in January 2026 that its Wolbachia-infected mosquito releases had reached over 16.1 million people across multiple countries, including Colombia, Indonesia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Vietnam. Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes — which block dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever transmission — had established self-sustaining populations in treated cities without requiring ongoing releases. Gold-standard randomised trials in Indonesia showed a 77% reduction in dengue incidence. The program represented one of the largest and most cost-effective vector control deployments in history.
December 2025
Gates Foundation Pledges $100 Million to Global Financing Facility for Women's and Children's Health 2026–2030
On December 6, 2025, at the Universal Health Coverage High-Level Forum in Tokyo, the Gates Foundation pledged $100 million to the World Bank-hosted Global Financing Facility's 2026–2030 strategy for ending preventable deaths among women, children, and adolescents in LMICs. The pledge brings the foundation's total GFF commitment past $500 million since 2015. The GFF provides catalytic grant financing and technical assistance to strengthen LMIC health systems and expand quality access to health and nutrition services for the world's most vulnerable populations.
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