LAHORE: Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates praised Pakistan’s use of innovative methods for the immunization coverage, terming it “an example for the rest of the world to emulate,” according to an official statement released on Thursday. 

The US philanthropist described the results reached by Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), as “unprecedented”.

Dr. Saif was invited by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Seattle to a meeting of Global Good, the fund set up by Gates to pioneer work to find technological solutions to problems facing people in poorer nations. 

Five people from all over the world were invited to the meeting to demonstrate how innovative technology and data has been used to advance global development goals, especially in child immunization and public health.

A statement on PITB’s Facebook page said: “Dr. Umar Saif met Bill Gates and shared how Pakistan has used technology and data to improve immunization coverage, eradicate dengue and improve health care. He (Bill Gates) said he has never seen such rapid transformation using technology anywhere in the world.”

Dr. Saif explained that the innovative technology systems developed by his team changed immunization coverage in Punjab from 18% to 88% in under two years. 

He further added that a “viral phone-calling service” had helped to reach out to unvaccinated children and bring them into the vaccination program and eradicate dengue in Punjab.

PITB used the technology following the 2011 dengue epidemic to track where new cases were appearing and target immunization to where it was most needed. In 2012 258 confirmed dengue cases were diagnosed in Labore instead of the previous year’s 21,000.

During his visit to Seattle, Dr. Saif met teams at the Gates Foundation and shared his work in estimating crop yield using the GIS (Geographic Information System).

Speaking after the meetings, he said it was wonderful to meet Bill Gates and that it was very encouraging to have his work recognized as a global success.