The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is stepping up on its advocacy for the eradication of malaria with a $23 million donation to support the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Bangkok-based Wellcome Trust-Mahidol University Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Programme to contain the spread of a new drug-resistant malaria strain.

Malaria is a global killer that nations, health organizations, and corporations are aiming to eradicate by the year 2015. WHO reports that over a quarter billion of people worldwide get infected with malaria annually, nearly one million of them are children. Although treatments and vaccines have led to a decline over the years, the infectious disease continues to plague far-flung communities of Africa and Southeast Asia.

In Cambodia, there is a setback in the new malaria strain found to be resistant to artemesinin, the most effective anti-malarial medication. If left unchecked, it could result in a “global malaria disaster”, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

The ‘superbug’ strain developed its resilience with the help of China counterfeit anti-malarials. Sold at $5 a packet, the fake pills contain charcoal, pollen, and a precursor of ecstasy, an Interpol report indicates. Aside from the absence of active ingredients, the fake anti-malarials contain trace amounts that kill only the weakest parasites but keep the strongest alive and resistant to genuine drugs. The new strain could spread from Cambodia to Africa through worker migration, a ‘doom scenario’ as WHO scientists aptly name it.

The WHO and the Gates-supported research program will screen and treat over 25,000 people in western Cambodia this month, and hope to cover hundreds of thousands in the coming months.

The Gates Foundation has been on the frontlines in the global war against malaria. They were among the pioneering supporters of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership program launched in 1998 by the World Bank in collaboration with three UN agencies – WHO, UNICEF, and UNDP – where they pledged $168.7 million to support research for a new generation of malaria vaccines.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Philanthropy News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.