Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Global Health Program

Global Health Program

The President of the Global Health Program is Trevor Mundel. The Gates Foundation has quickly become a major influence upon global health; the approximately US$800 million that the foundation gives every year for global health approaches the annual budget of the United Nations World Health Organization (193 nations) and is comparable to the funds given to fight infectious disease by the United States Agency for International Development.

The Global Health Program's significant grants include:

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Over $1.3 billion donated as of 2012.

Polio eradication

The Foundation provides 17% (US$86 million in 2006) of the world budget for the attempted eradication of polio myelitis (polio).

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization

The foundation gave The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization a donation of US$750 million on January 25, 2005.

Children's Vaccine Program

The Children's Vaccine Program, run by the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), received a donation of US$27 million to help vaccinate against Japanese encephalitis on December 9, 2003.

University of Washington Department of Global Health

The foundation provided approximately US$30 million for the foundation of the new Department of Global Health at the University of Washington in Seattle. The donation promoted three of the Foundation's target areas: education, Pacific Northwest and global health. The foundation also lead a study to increase access to high education globally.

HIV Research

The foundation has donated a grand total of US$287 million to various HIV/AIDS researchers. The money was split between sixteen different research teams across the world, on the condition that they share their findings with one another.

Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation

The foundation gave the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation more than US$280 million to develop and license an improved vaccine against tuberculosis for use in high burden countries.

Visceral Leishmaniasis Research

The foundation awarded the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases a US$5 million grant in 2009 for research into visceral leishmaniasis, an emerging parasitic disease in Ethiopia where it is frequently associated with HIV/AIDS, and a leading cause of adult illness and death. The project is a collaborative effort with Addis Ababa University and will gather data for analysis to identify the weak links in the transmission cycle and devise methods for control of the disease.

Reinventing the Toilet

The foundation has launched a competition to improve sanitation to create a new type of toilet. With grants provided by the foundation, CalTech created a solar-powered restroom that won first prize; other awardees include teams from Loughborough University and University of Toronto. To further this effort The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has offered nearly $7 million dollars to engineers to help improve sanitation in the various countries affected by the poor sanitation crisis.

The foundation has also given The Institute for OneWorld Health a donation of nearly US$10 million to support the organization's work on a drug for visceral leishmaniasis.