Piot joins Gates Foundation as adviser

SEATTLE, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A Belgian doctor who once was critical of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has joined the foundation as a top health adviser, the Seattle charity said.

Dr. Peter Piot, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976 and later helped create and headed a United Nations HIV and AIDS program that advocated bringing expensive anti-AIDS drugs to Africa, will advise the foundation until May, the foundation said.

After that, Piot will launch a global health institute at London's Imperial College to find solutions to infectious diseases, such as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and deadly tropical diseases in poor countries.

Piot had criticized the Gates Foundation for putting too much money into research projects, such as the search for a malaria vaccine, and not enough into figuring out how to get the vaccines or new technologies to people in those poor countries, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

The foundation later recognized it had overemphasized research and now includes health delivery in its global health program, he said.

Piot's immediate goal at the foundation is to help it figure how to take the next crucial steps in advancing global health, he told the newspaper.

"They can't do everything, so they need to be smart with their investments," he said.