Malaria has plagued nations and continues to do so in many parts of the world. The UK government and Microsoft founder Bill Gates recognize this as a serious public health problem thus, they have joined and pledged $6 billion to eradicate the disease.
Together with UK chancellor George Osbourne, the power duo will work to fight the "world's deadliest disease," with the goal of totally wiping out the mosquito-borne infection by the year 2040.
Osbourne and Gates announced that the funds will be used over the next five years for research purposes. The money will also be used to support other relevant endeavors to eliminate the disease.
"Achieving the eradication of malaria and other poverty related infectious diseases will be one of humanity's greatest achievements," says Bill Gates.
More specifically, the fund will be composed of about $710 million per year from Britain's overseas help budget. Another $286 million will come from the Gates Foundation this year. More donations are said to follow.
The money will be added to the Ross Fund, which is a newly-established funding program by the UK government.
"Eradicating malaria would save 11 million lives so today's announcement of the £1 billion Ross Fund is an important step to help tackle this global disease," Osbourne says.
The Ross Fund was founded in November 2015. The program is named after Sir Ronald Ross, the British scientist who received the Nobel Prize award in 1920 for discovering that mosquitoes transmit malaria.
The aim of the program is to amp up global health research so it can support battles against malaria and other neglected yet emerging infectious conditions. Examples of diseases that the researchers aim to address include tuberculosis and Ebola virus.
The people behind the Ross fund are looking to create, test and come up with new products such as medicines, vaccines and diagnostic modalities - all to fight serious diseases in developing nations.
In 2015, records show that deaths due to malaria reached 438,000. Most of the patients were aged below five years old and majority came from Africa.
Photo: Gisela Giardino | Flickr
