Bill Gates donates $10 million for Polio

The United Nations said Thursday that it has received grants of $ 10 million from the Bill Gates to help develop and introduce a more effective new vaccine for polio.

Developing a new polio vaccine is a key part of the World Health Organization strategy to eradicate the crippling disease by the end of 2005.

The Gates Foundation funds will help WHO and UNICEF to develop, license and introduce the new vaccine, which will be used initially in Egypt, by May 2005. WHO has previously said a shortage of funds was hindering efforts to eradicate polio.

The new vaccine will be more effective against the only strain of polio which is currently present in Egypt making the country an ideal place to introduce it, WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari said.

It is intended for use in mass immunization campaigns where the other variants of the disease have been eliminated.

The existing vaccine immunizes against all strains of the disease, but is less effective against'that particular variant, Bari explained.

Meanwhile, an official source in Ministry of health said that Egypt's share would be used in training the health officials on using the new vaccine as well as taking part in a bid to eradicate polio finally.