Gates to close on malaria

HEALTH/ Microsoft's ex-chief will inject money to help control the disease in India

Malaria has been around for a long time. Egyptian mummies show signs of malaria, and ancient Greeks were familiar with it. The true culprit is a mosquito parasite, four varieties of plasmodium. This is a tiny, single-celled organism that is nevertheless much more complicated than a bacterium or virus. Since it has lived in humans and mosquitoes for millennia, and because it breeds fast and is complex, it is very good at out-evolving any of the drugs we can throw at it.

 

Thus far the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has focused on Africa, where malaria is almost out of control. It has given over $500 million to initiatives to develop a malaria vaccine and new, effective and cheap drugs, and to make preventive measures widely available