Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, met with 14 Diet members of JCIE’s Friends of the Global Fund, Japan (FGFJ) Diet Task Force to discuss the latest accomplishments of the Global Fund and how Japan can play an even greater leadership role in the battle against the three deadly diseases. They were joined by 11 members of the FGFJ Board of Advisors, as well as Global Fund Executive Director Mark Dybul, and other global health leaders. Gates and Dybul were in Japan to attend the Global Fund’s 5th replenishment preparatory meeting and JCIE’s conference on Universal Health Coverage.

More leadership from Japan as host of the G7:

Gates congratulated the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, on their successes to date and expressed appreciation toward Japan—the G7 Summit host for 2015—for keeping global health as a major topic on the agenda. He also called for the cooperation of task force members in encouraging the Japanese government to fully disburse the remaining funds committed to the Global Fund and to take the lead in the next replenishment cycle.

Gates spoke enthusiastically about the advances being made in medical research—the development of new medicines and treatment methods that can substantially reduce the cost and duration of AIDS and TB treatment, and the development of highly sensitive diagnostic kits and computer modeling for malaria-related epidemiology, which has made the eradication of malaria a real possibility. He noted that Japan has an opportunity to take on a leadership role, particularly in efforts to eradicate malaria in Asia.

For more information on this event, please visit the FGFJ Website.