Hyderabad: Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, has hailed India's vaccine manufacturing prowess and lauded the efforts of the country's manufacturers to provide affordable vaccines worldwide. Speaking at a virtual meeting at the 19th edition of BioAsia hosted by the Indian embassy on Tuesday (February 22), Gates said India had supplied over 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to nearly 100 nations in the previous year.
"India’s vaccine coverage is very impressive. It is even better than most rich countries, which is quite phenomenal," Gates said during a discussion with Telangana IT Minister KT Ramarao on the first day of the conference Thursday.
In response to a question from KTR about the learnings from Covid, Gates said: "...the last major pandemic occurred roughly a century ago. It is unlikely that the next outbreak will be caused by a coronavirus or even the flu. It's more likely a respiratory virus because, with all of the current human travel, it's the one that can spread quickly. I'm actually writing a book on it. We must persuade the world to increase its investment in research and development. Because infectious diseases have a low disease burden compared to cancer, heart disease, and other diseases.This epidemic is a reminder that we need to go back and do a better job on those to enhance health equity."
Speaking on technology in health, Bill Gates said that with the help of technology, services in the health sector would be facilitated, and doctors would be able to treat many problems remotely without the patient having to come to hospital.
When it comes to diagnostics, BP, sugar monitors, the use of sensors in watches, and other gadgets paired with artificial intelligence to advise about sleep and diet will be the next wave of health tech, Gates siad.
He said the Bill Gates Foundation would work on HIV control and child malnutrition over the next ten years.