Bill Gates recently took the stage at Facebook’s UK headquarters to speak about malaria and polio, reports The Telegraph, and his optimism is heartening. Continuous work is being put into the eradication of these diseases, and Gates insists that “we can intensify these campaigns and slowly but surely take the map of malaria and shrink it down.”
Malaria, for instance, may not be around in another 15 years. Even more promising is Gates’ estimation that polio could be certified as eradicated by 2019 – just 4 years from now.
“There are very intense efforts taking place there now that may result in the last case even there sometime in 2016. So then you wait three years after your last case just to make sure, and that would mean that this would be certified the second disease ever to be eradicated, in 2019. That is a mind-blowing thing.”
Gates went on a philanthropic kick since stepping down as CEO of Microsoft, and he has continued to donate to such causes ever since. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was founded in 2000, which has donated tens of billions of dollars in grants.
Further reading: Bill Gates, Microsoft, Philanthropy
