A rchive Date
[ 22-09-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mozambique ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/09/21/198931-ap.html
Gates Foundation announces US$168 million grant for malaria research
By DINA KRAFT
Sun, September 21, 2003
MANHICA, Mozambique (AP) - Microsoft magnate Bill Gates announced US$168 million in funding for malaria research Sunday, the largest single donation toward fighting the mosquito-born disease that kills about 1 million people a year, most of them in Africa.
The announcement was made as Gates and his wife Melinda toured a malaria treatment and research center in the rural village of Manhica, an area hard hit by the disease about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital, Maputo.
"Malaria is robbing Africa of its people and potential," Gates said.
"Beyond the extraordinary human toll, Malaria is one of the greatest barriers to Africa's economic growth, draining national health budgets and deepening poverty," he said.
The funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will come in the form of three research grants: one to search for a vaccine; a second for using existing drugs to cut down the number of infections in babies and third for the development of new medicines to combat drug resistant strains of the disease.
Malaria kills more people than any other disease in the world.
After AIDS it is the number one killer of African children, with 3,000 dying a day from the illness.
Malaria was rolled back by medical advances in the mid-20th century but is now making a deadly comeback with strains of the disease becoming increasingly resistant to treatment.
Last year, as many as 900 million were sickened by malaria, according to estimates by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Of that number, more than 1 million - and as many as 2.7 million by some estimates - died. The vast majority were in Africa.
International efforts to contain or even eradicate the disease have received a boost in recent years with major grants from the U.S. government and from the US$4.7 billion five-year U.N. Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Malaria campaigners say that despite the increased focus, their efforts remain woefully underfunded. Whereas AIDS vaccine research receives US$400 million a year, malaria research receives just US$60 million.
On the Net:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: gatesfoundation.org]
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