November 3, 2009 - Earlier last week Bill and Melinda Gates launched a new project through their foundation in order to emphasize the importance of government contributions to global health. The couple highlighted the previous success of U.S. government initiatives in combating malaria, reducing child mortality rates through immunization, and preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. These successes underscore how critical maintaining global health care funding is, despite the recent economic downturn.

As the current pandemic of H1N1 influenza has shown, health has become an increasingly global issue, and the emergence of infectious disease in any part of the world can potentially affect the health of the rest and take a major economic toll. Sustaining Global Surveillance and Response to Emerging Zoonotic Diseases, a report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, recommends that the U.S. government and other donor organizations provide resources, assistance, and coordination to help build an integrated and globally sustainable zoonotic disease surveillance system. The report also recommends that global stakeholders in the developed world help under-resourced governments provide incentives, such as vaccines, to encourage the reporting of outbreaks and to lessen the social and economic consequences of diseases that might emerge in the future. Sustaining global health funding is just one part of reaching this goal.

In May, the Institute of Medicine released The U.S. Commitment to Global Health: Recommendations for the Public and Private Sectors, which recommends how the U.S government and American foundations, companies, universities, and nongovernmental organizations, along with other developed nations, can lead efforts to build health care infrastructure, work forces, resources, and facilities in resource-limited countries. The report proposes raising the U.S. annual investment in global health to $15 billion -- less than 1 percent of next year's federal budget -- by 2012. This funding would be allotted to existing interventions to achieve health gains, such as improving child mortality and prenatal care, through programs that include vaccination, dietary supplementation, and AIDS and malaria treatment and prevention.

• African Science Academy Development Initiative 2009 Conference
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Living Proof Project