Gates backs cervical cancer vaccines for poor

[ckramer]

Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates is putting his financial muscle behind a campaign to get life-saving cervical cancer vaccines to women in poor countries.

Two rival vaccines targeting the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes the disease, are expected to be launched in the next year or two by Merck & Co Inc and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

But it is unclear how the novel shots will be funded in the developing world, where most deaths from cervical cancer occur.

In a bid to speed their development and introduction, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had been granted $7 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

link

Gates is doing the good thing. But it's a shame that the tasks of curing the sick and feeding the poor fall on rich individuals but not the government. It's a failure of governments.

[Beware the Beast Man]

1. He makes it really tough for me to hate him some days.

:D

[Massacure]

9. His heart is in the right place even if his company isn't.

[neuvocat]

14. I have to reluctantly agree.

[rocktivity]

2. Present country included, Bill?

:headbang:
rocknation

[xxqqqzme]

3. nope, the fundies R

opposed to this vaccine. I think they should CHOOSE not 2 participate then. It's like 'against abortion?, then don't have one!'

[noonwitch]

5. I don't think the fundies will win this one

I know logic doesn't really go far with that crowd. Yet, the statistics speak for themselves and the question needs to be posed the right way, to shut them up on the subject eternally.

"Should a woman pay for having sex by getting cancer, when a vaccine can prevent it?" I think most people would say no.

The fundies can never really overtake the medical establishment in this country.

[truthisfreedom]

15. if the fundies don't support protecting life, they have a culture of death

period.

[HockeyMom]

4. Again, Gates bucks the Fundies

first on gays, and now on "fornicators". Yes, the Christian family organizations and this administration is against this under "Abstinence Only until Marriage."

[Rainscents]

6. Hey Gate... What about poor women in this country??? But, I guess

that don't count.

[DFWdem]

10. Well, it stands to reason...

That if they are successful in developing a vaccine for this it will be made available to women in all countries. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. There's a cervical cancer vaccine available? Do they use it much

in the U.S.?

[central scrutinizer]

8. I don't believe it has been approved yet

but they should be out early next year.

Read Katha Pollitt's take on the fundy opposition:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&s=pollitt

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. As Americans, don't we have the right to be free from Christian oppresant?

Good article, thanks.

[KittyWampus]

13. Technically It's Not A Cancer Vaccine. It's A Vaccine Against A Virus

which weakens a woman's immune system and opens way for cervical cancer.

Hope I got that correct.

Perhaps in the US, the virus isn't as prevalent?

[applegrove]

12. And every time they count up 'how generous Americans are' or

how much American 'gives to poor countries' - the GOP includes Gates and people like Turner in that.

Turner & Gates know full well that they give because much of their profit comes from abroad. Their wealth is not ALL AMERICAN.

They have also figured out that their is no much in being so successful if that success cannot be measured in improved lives for the people around them.