Late last week a group of the world's top health officials met to put the finishing touches to a multibillion-dollar campaign aimed at wiping out malaria. According to Newsweek, the initiative is the culmination of efforts begun a year ago when Melinda Gates insisted at a summit meeting in Seattle that the time was ripe to outline a long-term strategy to eradicate the disease--which kills about a million people a year. And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will continue to play a key role in the new program, donating millions of their Microsoft fortune to the effort.
The campaign is already gaining significant steam, and those involved say that the global work being done for malaria can be replicated for a long lineup of diseases like TB, HIV and pneumonia.
"It's a little like putting the first mammal into orbit," Scott Case, vice chairman and CEO of the nonprofit Malaria No More, tells Newsweek. "Once you see that it can be done, it opens up a whole new set of possibilities."
- read the article in Newsweek