Committed over $4 billion to global polio eradication
The Gates Foundation became the single largest funder of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, committing over $4 billion toward wiping out poliovirus worldwide. Gates treated the effort as a personal mission, meeting repeatedly with heads of state to maintain immunization campaigns in high-risk regions including Afghanistan and Pakistan. Wild poliovirus cases fell by more than 99.9% from an estimated 350,000 annual cases in 1988 to fewer than 20 in recent years.
Source: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/our-work/programs/global-development/polio
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Delivered UN General Assembly address on global polio eradication
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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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