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News/Event Item
Gates Foundation Gives $10 Million to UN Fight Against Deadly Maternal Tetanus
18 November 2003
By UN News Centre
18 November - The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has received a $10 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fight maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), which kills an estimated 230,000 mothers and babies annually in the poorest and most remote areas of the world.
Noting that at a cost of just $1.20 per woman, UNICEF can eliminate these needless deaths with a safe and effective vaccine that has been available in the developed world for more than 70 years, the agency called the gift, an extension of $26 million given in 1999, a challenge grant to encourage other donors and foundations to contribute.
MNT strikes when tetanus spores, found in soil everywhere, come into contact with open cuts during childbirth in unsanitary conditions. Within days, tetanus spreads throughout the body, causing spasms, paralyzing stiffness and arching of the spine. Eighty per cent of newborns and mothers who develop the disease die from it.
Copyright 2003 UN News Centre
For the Full Article, go to:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=8921&Cr=tetanus&Cr1=
United Nations Children's Fund
http://www.unicef.org
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
http://www.gatesfoundation.org
category: Member Organization News : General Health News
contributed by Julia Post on 18 November 2003
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