The second phase of the Children's Vaccination Programme (CVP), covering six more districts and five million children in Andhra Pradesh, was formally inaugurated by Microsoft chief Bill Gates at Shadnagar, in Mehboobnagar district, about 45 km from Hyderabad, today. Bill Gates and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu administered polio vaccine to several babies at the Community Health Centre. More than 50 babies were brought to the Centre by their mothers for immunization at the hands of Bill Gates, the co-founder of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which is funding the vaccination in the state through a Partnership Project of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Seattle-based Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). He spent about 45 minutes at the Centre talking to the staff and enquiring about the success of the programme in the district which was covered under the first phase of the CVP.

Talking to press persons after administering vaccine to the children, Bill Gates said he was very much impressed with the vaccination programme in the state. “Every child in every corner of the world deserves the benefit of life-saving vaccines. I commend the State of Andhra Pradesh for its strong commitment to immunisation. This project is saving lives and demonstrates an innovative approach that I hope will become a model for the rest of the country,” he said

He said originally the Foundation had committed to contribute $25 million spread over five years for the programme after which the state government would run the scheme on its own. But looking at the excellent performance in the state, the Foundation would consider extending the support to the programme even after five years.

Contrary to expectations, Gates did not make any firm commitment to help the state's AIDS campaign. He said there was no vaccine for AIDS as of today. It would take at least 10 years to develop such a vaccine. He had already announced aid worth $ 400 million (Rs 2,000 crore) for the entire country and Andhra Pradesh would get a matching share for the prevention of AIDS in the state. He said the dynamic Chief Minister had already discussed the issue with him.

Allaying fears on the Hepatitis-B controversy, Gates said the vaccine was safe and more than one billion doses had been given so far in 150 countries. Even in India the vaccine was being used for 12 years, he said. Hepatitis-B is a highly infectious virus that is transmitted 40 to 100 times more than HIV through exposure to bodily fluids, blood, semen, vaginal secretions and saliva. It is a major cause for liver cancer and kills more than 5 lakh people a year world wide. He said it had been estimated that the programme in Andhra Pradesh would prevent some 38,000 Hepatitis-B infections and 6,000 deaths every year.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said immunisation was the most cost-effective health intervention today. “All women and children had the right to health, and this starts with immunisation. The Partnership Programme in AP aims to create a model immunisation programme that other states and countries can learn from us and follow,” he said

He said the second phase of the programme would cover the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Krishna, Warangal and Adilabad. The first phase had already covered the districts of Chittor, Cuddapah, Anantapur, Kurnool, Mehboobnagar and Guntur. The remaining 11 districts would be covered under the third phase starting from November 2003.

The project goal is to improve immunisation against seven vaccine-preventable diseases -- tuberculosis, diphtheria, polio, measles, tetanus, whooping cough and now hepatitis-B. The project is using auto-disable syringes, which are self-locking and impossible to use more than once, thus eliminating the threat of cross-infection.