14 DAY TRIAL // After the $258.3 million donation for fighting malaria, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced an additional $84.3 million in grants which will go to 18 developing countries to prevent newborn illness and death.
The grants will expand access to low-tech, low-cost interventions, such as antibiotics and clean childbirth kits, which have the potential to save millions of lives.
Every year, four million newborns die in the first month of life, 99 percent of them in developing countries, equivalent to the number of babies born in the U.S. annually. Three out of four newborn deaths can be prevented with low-cost tools such as antibiotics for pneumonia, sterile blades to cut umbilical cords, and teaching mothers the importance of skin-to-skin contact to keep their babies warm.
"As a parent, I can't imagine anything more devastating than the loss of a child," said Melinda Gates. "It's tragic that millions of newborns die every year, especially when these deaths are so easily preventable."
"Some global health problems, like AIDS, have no easy solution, but this isn't one of them," said Bill Gates. "The world has an opportunity to stop millions of newborn deaths each year."
Out of the total sum, $60 million will go to the Save the Children foundation for newborn health projects in 18 developing countries, while $24.3 million will go to the PATH to support 17 grassroots newborn and maternal health projects in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, India.
Bill Gates noted that despite gains in other health areas in developing countries, there has been virtually no progress in reducing newborn deaths.
"If we want to save lives in a big way, we must do a better job of protecting infants, especially during the first month of life," said Mr. Gates.
Photo credit: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation