Chancellor George Osborne and philanthropist Bill Gates have announced £3bn in funding over the next five years to tackle malaria.
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About £500million a year for the next five years will be allocated from Britain’s worldwide development budget.
Moreover, World Health Organization’s yearly report noted that death toll from malaria drastically decreased from 839,000 in 2000 to 438,000 in 2015, Reuters reported.
According to Osborne, some of the money will be spent in Britain to advance the science being used to combat the disease.
Osborne and Gates launched the Ross Fund-named after British scientist Sir Ronald Ross, who won a Nobel Prize in 1902 for proving that mosquitoes spread malaria-in November 2015. The two hope to make the world malaria-free in their lifetimes. “We are confident that this is a war we can win”, they added. And The Gates Foundation will give $200m (£140m) this year, with other donations of at least £110m to follow in the next five years.
“Achieving the eradication of malaria and other poverty related infectious diseases will be one of humanity’s greatest achievements”, says Bill Gates.
Gates and Osborne also shared how the world, through its science and technology, has reduced the number of malaria deaths during the past 15 years.
Director of LSTM, Professor Janet Hemingway, said that as the world’s oldest Tropical Medical Institution dedicated to improving health, LSTM is delighted to see the growing partnership between British government and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, providing leadership and support to the fight against the global health challenges of malaria.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 22, 2016.
Together with United Kingdom chancellor George Osbourne, the power duo will work to fight the “world’s deadliest disease”, with the goal of totally wiping out the mosquito-borne infection by the year 2040.
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The Foundation is matching funds raised this year by Sport Relief for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS TB and Malaria, a partner that provides half of all international funding for malaria worldwide.
