How Bill Gates, a valley full of snakes and one entrepreneur took on a deadly disease

Monday, September 17, 2018

By Clare McGrane

In 1996, Bill Gates read a story in the New York Times that sparked his passion for health. The story was about a disease he’d never heard of: rotavirus. At the time it killed more than half a million children every year.

That moment was one of the factors that led him to co-found the Gates Foundationwith his wife, Melinda, and become one of the most influential figures in the history of public health.

What Gates didn’t know is halfway across the globe, a scientist in New Delhi had made a discovery that could be the key tool in fighting rotavirus. Over the next twenty years, a huge international collaboration between Bill Gates, scientists and policy makers across the globe and one exceptionally determined Indian entrepreneur turned that discovery into a unique new vaccine, called Rotavac.

The vaccine has made waves as a case study for global health solutions created in and by developing countries, with help from a network of international powers. It’s also getting attention for its incredibly low price: just $1 a dose.

Photo courtesy of Carlos Reusser Monsalvez.

Source: GeekWire (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Health Care
Tags
global development, vaccines