Gates Triples Funding To End TB

Billionaire Pledges $900M For New Drugs To Eradicate Tuberculosis

(AP)  Bill Gates pledged Friday to triple his foundation's funding for eradicating tuberculosis to a total of $900 million by 2015, and health experts at the World Economic Forum urged renewed caution against the spread of bird flu.

The funding is part of a larger campaign against TB, which killed 1.6 million people worldwide last year. Gates, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and British treasury chief Gordon Brown called for help to prevent 14 million tuberculosis deaths over the next decade.

"This is a very tough disease," said Gates, the Microsoft Corp. chairman and co-founder. "It is going to take all of us, private sector, the pharmaceutical companies, philanthropy and governments in countries that have the disease, to participate as well."

The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis was formed by the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership, a group of 400 organizations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation now gives $300 million to help fight the disease, and Gates said the amount would reach $900 million by 2015.

Britain said it would commit $74 million to fight tuberculosis in India.

"If 2005 was the year of commitments, 2006 must be the year of delivery," Brown said. "That's why, when the G8 finance ministers meet in Moscow in only a few days time, I will put on the agenda how we can meet the commitments to fund this specific plan."

Brown also said he would propose to the G8 ministers expanding a debt relief agreement made last year to some of the world's poorest nations.

Also Friday, the U.N. bird flu chief cautioned against thinking the disease was losing its edge because the mortality rate in Turkey is lower than in Asia.

"We must still maintain utmost vigilance for and preparations for the next human influenza pandemic," David Nabarro told reporters.