At the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, in New Orleans, Bill Gates, the billionaire and philanthropist, declared that “his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will devote the sum of 500 million dollars in 2014 to reduce the burden of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea and a series of parasitic infections, main causes of death and disability in developing countries”.
“In addition to this commitment, his foundation has increased its annual funding for malaria by 30%,” recalls its founder. “The hemorrhagic fever epidemic ofEbola, which has caused the death of more than 4,900 people in West Africa since the beginning of the year, is a critical moment in the history of world health”, explains the billionaire who affirmed “the need for ‘strengthened efforts to deal with drug-resistant diseases such as malaria and dengue fever’ and the importance of ‘reducing the burden of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea and a range of parasitic infections, causes main causes of death and disability in developing countries”.
“The eradication of malaria by the middle of this century is both a necessary and achievable goal,” according to Bill Gates. “We won’t get there in small steps. History shows that the only way to stop malaria is to put an end to it permanently”, he concluded during this meeting.
the malaria is the most common parasitic infection observed worldwide. It is transmitted by the bite of certain Anopheles mosquitoes which transmit a parasite which infects liver cells before circulating in the blood and destroying red blood cells. Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in Africa.
Each year, malaria still causes between 1 and 3 million deaths (mainly in sub-Saharan Africa), according to figures from the World Health Organization. The main victims are children under 5 and pregnant women, because the placenta is a target where mosquito-borne parasites can accumulate.
