Get help. The money from the Gates Foundation should encourage research on ways to prevent malaria in children.
The chronic underfunding field malaria research has just received a major new impetus. Traveling in Mozambique mogul software and philanthropist Bill Gates announced yesterday that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will spend $ 168 million on new research in the fight against the scourge, which is estimated to sicken half a billion people every year and kills more than one million.
The money will be spent on three projects:
- The Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), which aims to bring together governments, industry and academia to develop vaccines will receive $ 100 million. Despite decades of research, there is no vaccine against malaria. Founded in 1999 as part of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health in Seattle, MVI has already received $ 50 million from the Gates Foundation.
- The drugs based in Geneva for Malaria Venture will receive $ 40 million for his efforts to develop new cheap drugs against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum , who developed resistance to many drugs currently available. The nonprofit, who pocketed $ 25 million from Gates in 00, has several drug candidates in the pipeline.
- Another $ 28 million will go to the study of an innovative prevention tool based on existing drugs. In intermittent preventive treatment in infants, children, the group most vulnerable to malaria, receive antimalarial drug three times during the first year of life, as well as routine vaccinations. A study in 701 children in southern Tanzania, published in 01, showed that the treatment could cut the number of malaria cases; Gates' contribution will pay for the bigger, cluster tests necessary to decide the implementation strategy widely.
The researchers say that the new initiatives could significantly advance the field, which is currently estimated to receive only $ 100 million a year - a fraction of what is spent on the study of diseases affecting richer countries. "Given the needs in malaria is a tremendous boost," said Michael Gottlieb, a program officer for parasitology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.
Related Sites
More information on grants
Malaria Vaccine Initiative
Medicines for Malaria Venture
Executive Summary of intermittent preventive treatment in infants
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