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Bill Gates joins battle against malaria
The world's wealthiest man and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has pledged a grant of $258.3 million for medical research and development to combat malaria, a disease that kills one African child every thirty seconds.
The software magnate expressed his concern over the lack of efforts to fight the deadly affliction. “The fact that all these kids are dying, over 2,000 a day. That's terrible. If it was happening in rich countries, we'd act,” said Gates. “It's a disgrace that the world has allowed malaria deaths to double in the last 20 years, when so much more could have been done to stop the disease.”
The grant will be utilized for developing new drugs, vaccines, better pesticides and bed nets for protection against malaria. “Millions of children have died from malaria because they were not protected by an insecticide-treated bed net or did not receive effective treatment. If we can expand malaria control programs and invest what is needed in research and development we can stop this tragedy,” added the philanthropist.
A major share of the grant will go to a Non-profit organization Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) that is working closely with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals to develop a malaria vaccine. The initial testing of the vaccine in Mozambique has shown positive results.
Another major chunk $100 million will go to the Medicines for Malaria Venture, a group working for the development of affordable drugs to cure malaria. The remaining amount will be utilized in developing better pesticides and bed nets.
The software mogul was optimistic about the eradication of the intractable malady. "With breakthroughs that will come over the next two decades, yes, we can make malaria in the whole world like it is in the United States today, something that we just don't have to worry about," said Gates.
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Written
by :
Waddah Yaman | Published on :
14:18:00
EST
Sat, 05 Nov 2005 |
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