Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:20 pm   Reply with quote      

“It's really a tragedy that the world has done so little to stop this disease that kills 2000 African children every day. If those children were in rich countries, we would have headlines, we'd take action. We wouldn't rest until every child was protected,” he added.


It is good to see that the richest man in the world is at least making an attempt to look like he is trying to make a difference with all of the money that he has

Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:29 pm   Reply with quote      

You know, I kind of like Bill Gates. I'm not saying that he is the greatest man in the world, nor am I saying that he should win Nobel Peace prize, but there are many things that I like about him, and this is one of them. He funds for good causes more than anyone in the world, but that's a statement of fact.

Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:50 am   Reply with quote      

Exactly, unlike most in the world today, he has more so he gives more

That is what truly shows good character

Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:52 pm   Reply with quote      

By the way, what do you think about this particular funding? Do you thinking that funding for the research of malaria is most helpful to those who are underprivileged?

Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:36 pm   Reply with quote      

I do, it is one of the diseases that does not affect the US and Canada, and is therefore almost always overlooked when people want to donate, or for government grants

Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:23 pm   Reply with quote      

Some information about Malaria.

Disease control

Background

Efforts to eradicate malaria by eliminating mosquitoes have been successful in some areas. Malaria was once common in the United States and southern Europe, but the draining of wetland breeding grounds and better sanitation, in conjunction with the monitoring and treatment of infected humans, eliminated it from affluent regions. Malaria was eliminated from the northern parts of the USA in the early twentieth century, and the use of the pesticide DDT during the 1950s eliminated it from the South. A major public health effort to eradicate malaria worldwide by selectively targeting mosquitoes in areas where malaria was rampant was embarked upon in the 1950s and 1960s. However, these efforts ultimately failed to eradicate malaria in many parts of the developing world. The problem still most rampantly exists in Africa.

DDT was developed as the first of the modern insecticides early in World War II. It was initially used with great effect to combat mosquitoes spreading malaria. It was banned for use in many countries in the 1970s due to its negative environmental impact. There is great controversy regarding this impact and the use of DDT to fight human diseases. Some claim that the ban is responsible for malaria deaths counted in tens of millions in tropical countries where the disease had been under control.

The World Bank estimates that malaria costs Africa $12bn a year in lost productivity. Yet international funding for malaria control is only $100m-$200m a year. It has been argued that in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals, money should be redirected from HIV/AIDS treatment to malaria prevention, which for the same amount of money would provide much greater benefit to African economies.

Conventional means

Since most of the deaths today occur in poor rural areas of Africa which lack proper health care, the distribution of mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide has been suggested as the most effective and cost-effective prevention method. These nets can often be obtained for less than US$10 or 10 euros when purchased in bulk from the United Nations or other organizations. The nets need to be re-impregnated with the chemical about every six months. Insecticide-treated bed nets (ITN) have the advantage of protecting people living under the net and simultaneously killing mosquitoes which get in contact with the net and thus protecting people sleeping in the same room but not under the net.

Spraying interior walls with DDT is also effective in areas where the mosquitoes are not already DDT-resistant. This public health use of small amounts of DDT is permitted under the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which prohibits the agricultural use of DDT for large-scale field spraying.

Environmental management including elimination of mosquito habitats was an important measure to get rid of malaria in large parts of Europe. It is also an important option in many tropical (urban) settings.

Vaccines and other new techniques

Vaccines for malaria are under development, with no completely effective vaccine yet available (as of September 2005). A team backed by the Gates Foundation and the pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline announced a partially successful field trial in October 2004, for RTS,S/AS02A, a vaccine which reduces infection risk by 30% and severity of infections by over 50%., although the numbers in this latter category of patients were rather small Further research will delay this vaccine from commercial release until around 2010. In January 2005, Edinburgh University scientists announced the discovery of an antibody which protects against the disease. The scientists will lead a £17m European consortium of malaria researchers.[9] It is hoped that the genome sequence of the most deadly agent of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, which was completed in 2002, will provide targets for new drugs or vaccines.

Sterile insect technique is emerging as a potential method to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Progress towards transgenic, or genetically modified insects suggests that wild mosquito populations could be made malaria-resistant. Researchers at Imperial College London created the world's first transgenic malaria mosquito, with the first plasmodium-resistant species announced by a team at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio in 2002.

A very promising approach was announced in Science on June 10, 2005. It uses inert spores of the fungus Beauveria bassiana to kill mosquitoes, sprayed on walls and bed nets. Unlike chemicals, mosquitoes have never been found to develop a resistance to fungal infections.

The document was originally published at Wikipedia and the document is licensed under GNU Free Document License. If you'd like to find out more about Malaria, you might be interested in visiting this page in Wikipedia.

Tue Feb 07, 2006 10:38 pm   Reply with quote      

Gates Foundation is making too money and they are having difficulty finding projects to fund. I wonder how this affects project selection process.