Bill and Melinda Gates Call for New Global Commitment to Chart a Course for Malaria Eradication

Bill and Melinda Gates Call for New Global Commitment to Chart a Course for Malaria Eradication

October 18, 2007

New Resources and Scientific Progress Help Pave the Way
Toward Malaria Eradication

U.S. Presidential Candidates Urged to Sustain and Expand
President's Malaria Initiative

    SEATTLE, Oct. 18 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- 

    Bill and Melinda Gates today called on global leaders
to embrace "an audacious goal - to reach a day when no
human being has malaria, and no mosquito on earth is
carrying it."  They delivered the call to action at a
forum of 300 leading malaria scientists and policymakers
from around the world.

    "Advances in science and medicine, promising
research, and the rising concern of people around the world
represent an historic opportunity not just to treat malaria
or to control it - but to chart a long-term course to
eradicate it," said Melinda Gates.

    Every year, malaria kills more than one million people,
most of them children.  A malaria eradication campaign in
the 1950s and 1960s collapsed because of declining donor
funding and growing resistance to drugs and pesticides. 
Malaria programs since then have focused on reducing, not
ending, the burden of malaria.

    "We have a real chance to build the partnerships,
generate the political will, and develop the scientific
breakthroughs we need to end this disease," said Bill
Gates.  "We will not stop working until malaria is
eradicated."

    New Malaria Partnerships, Resources Achieving
Large-Scale Success

    Bill Gates noted that "a rush of new actors"
- such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and
Malaria; the World Bank's Malaria Booster Program; and the
U.S. President's Malaria Initiative - are bringing new
energy and resources to the global effort to control
malaria.  Together, these initiatives have committed $3.6
billion to malaria control, and will reach more than 70
countries.

    Gates also commended African countries that have
undertaken aggressive, comprehensive malaria control
programs.  In particular, he praised Zambia's malaria
program as an "inspiring example of a
nationally-coordinated effort."

    A new UNICEF report released at the forum documents the
impressive progress of recent malaria control efforts.  For
example, the report shows that:

    -- The annual supply of insecticide-treated bednets to
prevent malaria has
       more than doubled in recent years, from 30 million
nets in 2004 to 63
       million nets in 2006. 

    -- Global procurement of artemisinin combination
therapies, the most
       effective treatment for malaria, grew from 3 million
doses in 2003 to
       100 million in 2006.

    To help build on this progress, Mr. and Mrs. Gates
called on U.S. presidential candidates to commit to
supporting the President's Malaria Initiative, a $1.2
billion effort launched by President Bush in 2005.  Mr.
Gates said, "If you win this office, you will inherit
a record commitment to fighting malaria.  The world needs
you to sustain it and enhance it.  Malaria will never be
eradicated without the full support of the President of the
United States."

    Research Progress on New Vaccines, Drugs, and
Insecticides

    Mr. Gates cited the "extraordinary breadth of
research underway in medicines, vaccines, and other control
tools" as another reason for new optimism in the
malaria fight.  Examples of recent scientific progress by
Gates Foundation grantees include the following:

     -- Vaccines:  New study results from the PATH Malaria
Vaccine
        Initiative, published today by The Lancet, show
that the experimental 
        malaria vaccine RTS,S is safe and may significantly
reduce risk of 
        malaria infection in infants.  In the study of 200
infants, the  
        vaccine reduced new infections by 65% over
three-and-a-half months.  
        A large-scale Phase III trial of the vaccine will
begin next year in 
        10 African trial sites.

     -- Medicines:  The Medicines for Malaria Venture,
which is researching
        treatments to overcome resistance to existing
drugs, has developed the
        largest malaria drug portfolio in history, and
expects regulatory
        approval next year for an improved treatment for
children.

     -- Mosquito control:  The Innovative Vector Control
Consortium is
        developing new and improved insecticides to control
the mosquitoes
        that transmit malaria.

    New vaccines, medicines, and insecticides will help
"break the cycle of transmission and eradicate the
disease," said Mrs. Gates.  "Both private
industry and public research institutions must continue to
invest in new tools in order to make malaria eradication
possible."

    Mr. and Mrs. Gates delivered the remarks at a meeting
comprised of malaria researchers, global health leaders,
policy experts, and government officials from around the
world, taking place October 16-18 at the Sheraton Hotel in
Seattle.  Selected sessions of the meeting will be webcast
at
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/malariaforum2007.

    Guided by the belief that every life has equal value,
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all
people lead healthy, productive lives.  In developing
countries, it focuses on improving people's health, and
giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and
extreme poverty.  In the United States, it seeks to ensure
that all people, especially those with the fewest
resources, have access to the opportunities they need to
succeed in school and life.  Based in Seattle, the
foundation is led by CEO Patty Stonesifer and Co-chair
William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and
Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. 


    For more information, please contact:

     Jenny Sorensen
     Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Angela Hawke
     UNICEF
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     David Poland
     PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative
     Tel:   [phone]  
     Email: [e-mail]