Preventing the Next Pandemic

About this fund

COVID-19 uncovered global vulnerabilities to a tiny enemy: viruses. The world cannot afford to revert to its pre-COVID complacency about pandemics. We must start building systems now to find, stop, and prevent future deadly disease outbreaks.

Focus Areas

Dr Nishtha Singh, Junior resident, observes stain smears at the Dept of Microbiology, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, India, September 19, 2018. — Early Warning Systems
Developing a global pathogen surveillance system to catch, identify, and respond quickly to new threats.
©Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Saumya Khandelwal

Abdullah Al Ruwaili, Director of Humanitarian Aids Management at the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center talks with health workers in the laboratory where malaria is identified under microscope at the Deggo Health Centre in Pekine, Dakar, Senegal on March 13, 2017. The impact committee of the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF) visited the center to learn more about the fight against malaria. — Global Pandemic Watch Unit
Establishing a global team to strategize for and respond to disease outbreaks before they spread.
©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps

A medical staff member looks through a microscope to detect a blood sample if positive for malaria at the Deggo Health Centre in Pekine, Dakar, Senegal on March 13, 2017. The impact committee of the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF) visited the center to learn more about the fight against malaria. — Innovation
Building on recent R&D successes in diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines to ensure we are more prepared and more resilient in the future.
©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps

Mujeeb Hussain, and Tahira (right), research assistant, AKU (Aga Khan University) shifting stool sample of Pram Chand (6 month old) in a special storage container in the car before going to office from Akhand Jo Khoh village, Matiari district, Sindh province, Pakistan on December 1, 2016. — Global Health Systems
Working together to wipe out health crises such as COVID-19, as well as other epidemics like HIV, TB, and malaria that disproportionately affect the poor.
©Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Asad Zaidi

Dr. Onyimbo Kerama, Lead Consultant and Executive Director at Motire Occupational Safety and Health Solutions (MOSHS), uses the LumiraDx diagnostic instrument to test for COVID-19 in Thika, Kenya on August 31, 2021.

©Gates Archive

The Leishmania parasite, which is spread by infected sandflies, viewed through an electron microscope.

About this fund

Focus Areas

Early Warning Systems

Global Pandemic Watch Unit

Innovation

Global Health Systems

Together, we can use our best ideas to stop pandemics for good.