Indonesia Praised By Bill Gates For The Success Of Lowering Child Death Rates

JAKARTA - Microsoft founder and global philanthropic figure Bill Gates praised the Indonesian government for its contribution to the health sector, especially efforts to vaccinate children.

This was conveyed when visiting the Presidential Palace complex, Jakarta, Wednesday, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Gates Foundation.

"Indonesia is a great example, because it has adopted new vaccines such as rotavirus for diarrhea, pneumokokus for pneumonia, and now the HPV vaccine is starting to roll out," Bill Gates said in his remarks quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, May 7.

He also mentioned the active role of the Indonesian Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin who is now filling the position of Member of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), which is a global vaccine alliance supported by the Gates Foundation.

"Minister Budi even became a member of the GAVI Council. He knew GAVI well during the pandemic. The relationship between GAVI and Indonesia was very positive, so we continued this collaboration," said Bill Gates.

According to Bill Gates, cooperation between Indonesia and a number of global organizations, such as GAVI, shows the government's seriousness in protecting the younger generation from preventable diseases.

On that occasion Bill Gates said that the success of expanding vaccination coverage was one of the important factors in achieving a global reduction in child mortality in the last two decades.

Bill Gates revealed that the death toll for children under the age of 5 when the Gates Foundation was founded in 2000 had reached 10 million.

Most of the deaths were caused by diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and several other conditions that made babies very vulnerable in the first 30 days of their lives.

Bill Gates added that about 90 percent of the total child deaths at that time came from the four categories, so his party decided to focus on developing new medical equipment, including vaccines, and supporting its distribution efforts globally.

In fact, the number of children who died under the age of 5 has now decreased by half. Now the number is below 5 million, although that's still too much," he said.

Bill Gates is optimistic that this progress can continue to be improved, especially with technological innovations and international partnerships.

He emphasized that Indonesia has a strategic role in encouraging global health efforts, either through research, distribution of vaccines, or strengthening the national health system.