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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Thursday afternoon administered oral polio vaccines to five children at a rural health centre at Shadnagar in neighbouring Mahbubnagar district.
Gates also kicked off the second phase of the Hepatitis B Vaccine programme funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the state.
Mahbubnagar was one of the six districts covered under the first phase of the programme.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $12.5 million to the five-year programme aimed at providing free Hepatitis B vaccines to all children below 12 months of age.
The programme will be extended to the entire state in November next year to cover 1.6 million children born in the state each year.
Gates spent 40 minutes at the rural health centre in Shadnagar, about 50 km from Hyderabad.
He later told newsmen that he was satisfied with the progress of the immunization programme and said the foundation would extend more assistance in this area to Andhra Pradesh.
Responding to a question whether the foundation would extend special assistance to the state for tackling the HIV/AIDS menace, Gates said the foundation had already announced a $ 100 million initiative for India. "AIDS is becoming a crisis all over the world. India has the opportunity to take steps early to make sure that it does not become an epidemic," he said.
ALSO SEE: Eight-foot condom greets Bill Gates in Hyderabad
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