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Tribune News Service
Lucknow, November 17
The Yogi Adityanath government would soon sign an MoU with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to step up its campaign for vaccination of infants against the dreaded Japanese encephalitis that has been claiming lives on a regular basis in Gorakhpur.
At a meeting between the Microsoft founder-philanthropist Bill Gates, his wife Melinda and UP CM Yogi and their officials here today, it was decided that the MoU for a five-year contract would take up general health issues of young mothers and their newborns along with allied issues.
CM Yogi admitted that vaccination against Japanese encephalitis and acute encephalitis syndrome could not be effective without a special sanitation drive and safe drinking water and sewage in the villages in the catchment area of 38 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
The CM said improving the quality of care at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College where 70 infants had died within the first five days of November was the government’s priority. This included further training of the doctors at the hospital, which catered not only to eastern UP but Bihar as well as Nepal, he said.
Gates said his foundation was committed to providing technical assistance to the government to effectively combat vector and water-borne diseases, improving availability of potable drinking water, sanitation and malnutrition among mothers and infants.
The Microsoft founder offered to provide the latest technology to improve sanitation and drainage in the catchment districts. His foundation is already in talks with the Indian Medical Research Centre for the establishment of a monitoring centre at the BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, said Gates.
Focus on Gorakhpur
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