My favorite Billionaire:
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates is donating £28 million to a UK university as part of a £145m ($258.3m) gift to malaria research worldwide.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is supporting three international projects over five years.One project at the Liverpool School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine will look at ways to control the mosquitoes that spread malaria.
Others will look for new malaria drugs and environmentally-safe insecticides.
…
Mr Gates said malaria was a “forgotten epidemic”.“Millions of children have died from malaria because they were not protected by an insecticide-treated bed net, or did not receive effective treatment,” he said.
“If we expand malaria control programs, and invest what’s needed in research and development, we can stop this tragedy.”
I’ve railed about malaria being ignored in other posts. Bully for the Gates Foundation for putting their riches toward helping others.
One of these days someone is going to get a Nobel prize for reinventing DDT.
Mike
Have a friend in Malaysia, Malaria is bad there. Most infections are resistant to chloroquine, the common treatment. Chloroquine is supposed to be given to pregneant woman and children under five. However, some woman take it and very few children due. The Peace Corp gives mefloquine to Peace Corp volunteer’s, not widespread use to due to worry of no future treatments for malaria once it becomes resistant to mefloquine.
I hope the Gates money will buy a new treatment technique or possibly a step in the malaria cycle.
Having spent a lot of time in those parts of the world where malaria is the number one killer, I cheer their efforts.
Mike,
DDT is probably the most effective defense for malaria and Rachel Carson did the world more harm than good.
Like genetically modified foods, DDT will remain the whipping boy of the pompous, snot nosed environmental elitist gits who, sadly, prefer to see people starve or die from disease than the un-PC alternatives.
Plus, they hate the thought that the U.S. could actually make a humane difference in the world, that bugs them even more.