TY - JOUR T1 - Editor's Briefing JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 115 LP - 115 DO - 10.3399/bjgp13X663208 VL - 63 IS - 608 AU - Roger Jones Y1 - 2013/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/63/608/115.abstract N2 - Bill Gates gave the Richard Dimbleby lecture a few weeks ago, entitled The Impatient Optimist. He spoke passionately and inspiringly at the Royal Institution, watched by the current and past Presidents of the Royal Society, on his programme to eradicate poliomyelitis globally.Bill and Melinda Gates’ massive philanthropic commitment to health care began when they first learnt about the impact of rotavirus-induced diarrhoea, that at the time caused half a million child deaths, with preventive measures being carried out only in the world’s richer nations. The Gates were later inspired by meeting Bill Fahey, one of the giants of global smallpox eradication, in Seattle and finally turned their attention to polio. The disease, which was once a universal scourge, with over one third of a million cases reported as recently as 1988, is now almost eradicated; the only countries in … ER -