Bill Gates Launches $83.5M Malaria Fight
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http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=20185&hed=Bill+Gates+Launches+%2483.5M+Malaria+Fight
The foundation started by the Microsoft Chairman ups the ante in the battle to combat the infectious disease.
December 11, 2006
By Rachel Barron
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said Monday it will drop $83.5 million to fuel the fight against malaria, funneling the money towards such efforts as developing a vaccine to beat back the disease which claims more than 1 million people every year.
The news comes as Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation and the wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, prepares to speak at Thursdays White House Summit on Malaria taking place in Washington DC.
The summit, headed by U.S. President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush, will bring international researchers, corporations, and political leaders together to figure out how to get a better handle on a disease that mostly claims the lives of African children.
The world is finally waking up to the malaria catastrophe," Ms. Gates said in a statement.
To stop Malarias deadly toll, the gap in funding needs to be closed, and research needs to be accelerated, Ms. Gates said.
Malaria research is a severely under-funded endeavor, according to a study by the Malaria R&D Alliance, which represents organizations conducting research in the field. The alliances study puts malaria research funding in 2004 totaling $323 million, which is less than 0.3 percent of total health research spending worldwide.
Looking to boost funding is the Gates Foundation.
Among the latest grant recipients is the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which will grab $29.3 to boost research on a vaccine that looks to protect against malaria infection. The non-profit works with industry in its work. So far the combined efforts have led to 10 vaccine development projects around the globe, two of which have clinical trials in Africa underway.
This is not the first time the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative received Gates Foundation funding. The Path initiative was started with a $50 million grant, and later received an additional $100 million.
Also, the Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology garnered $3.5 million to study potential substances that can be used to trigger an immune response against malaria.
Forty-one percent of the world's population lives in areas, such as Africa and South America, where malaria is transmitted. Every year, 350 to 500 million people are infected with the disease.
Tragically, malaria deaths have doubled in parts of Africa over the past 20 years thanks to growing resistance to the most widely-used drugs.
In total, the Gates Foundation has committed $765.8 million to fight malaria. The foundation has also promised an additional $650 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, which supports national malaria control programs.
As of late, some governments and international organizations have stepped up efforts to stop malarias death toll
In June of last year President Bush put into action a five-year $1.2 billion program that in part works to help jump-start public-private efforts to control the disease.
Although it is anticipated that Ms. Gates will give an affirmative nod to such efforts, she is also expected on Thursday to touch on improving global strategies to fight malaria, such as calling for better communication between those working in the field to prevent duplication.
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Claudio Schuftan
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn