xenoMED : Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
Gates Foundation looks to fight malaria
Posted 17-10-2007 at 09:37 PM by Angel
Bill and Melinda Gates appealed to more than 300 malaria scientists and policy makers at a forum Wednesday to take the risky step of seeking to eradicate the disease worldwide instead of just keeping it under control.
A goal of anything short of eradication would be unethical and a bad business decision, despite unsuccessful efforts to stamp out the disease in the 1950s and 1960s, Melinda Gates said.
"It's a long-term goal; it won't come soon," she said, "but to aspire to anything less is just far too timid a goal for the age we're in. It's a waste of the world's talent and it's a waste of the world's intelligence, and it's wrong and unfair to the people who are suffering from this disease."
She said the world wasn't ready for a long fight against malaria 50 years ago, and when drugs and pesticides started failing, enthusiasm faded and funding almost disappeared. Malaria was eliminated from the United States and other developed countries at that time.
She is co-chairwoman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has committed $860 million to malaria programs and another $650 million to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Bill Gates promised the foundation's enthusiasm for the cause would never lag. He said many others would contribute money and commitment as long as those attending the organization's first malaria forum keep showing the world they can achieve their goals.
"If you show the world that we can end this disease, you will unleash the energy and the caring the commitment we need to meet that goal," he said. "We're not done and we will not stop working until malaria is eradicated."
Malaria kills more than a million people each year, most of them children. Deaths doubled in Africa over the past 20 years as malaria grew resistant to existing drugs and insecticides. New efforts to control the spread of the disease and develop new medicine and vaccines are starting to show results, according to a UNICEF report issued Tuesday.
Millions of insecticide-treated bed nets are being distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The newest treatment for the disease is reaching community health clinics in some countries. Four new vaccines are being prepared for large scale testing on humans as early as 2008.
After the Gates' presentation, conference participants said eradication should be possible as long as people and groups like the Gates Foundation continue to provide support.
"Funding for malaria is gaining momentum. Some years back you couldn't even get money for research. If that momentum grows over time, and people get the money to do more work, we will transform control to eradication," said Seth Owusu-Agyei, an epidemiologist with the Kintampo Health Research Centre in Kintampo, Ghana.
Owusu-Agyei led a team that recently completed a successful small trial of a new malaria vaccine for children developed by GlaxoSmithKline. Study results were released Wednesday in a paper published online in The Lancet.
The vaccine was found to be safe for infants and 35 percent effective in preventing new infections over a six-month period in infants. The same vaccine was found to be 45 percent effective among children age one to four.
Cooperation among those fighting the disease and developing vaccines, medications and insect control is key to achieving eradication, said Christian Loucq, director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative,.
"The big risk is if you don't reach (eradication) soon, fatigue will come," Loucq said.
He and other emphasized the need for more money and coordination of efforts. He said the $107 million cost of a single one large-scale trial of a new vaccine, or phase three trial, shows the need for planning by organizations and governments.
Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, urged scientists and policy makers not be territorial in their work or waste time debating whether eradication is possible because, "as we are talking here, children are dying."
The World Health Organization pledges to do whatever it can to bring about an end to malaria, Chan said.
"We have to make it work in the interest of humanity," she said. "I dare you to come along with us." - Source
Useful Links
Nepal: Malaria - Global health
Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- Portfolio of Grants in Nepal
This site provides a brief description of the national epidemic and details of malaria projects supported by the fund.
Nepal Ministry of Health and Population Malaria Control
This page outlines the Nepalese government's policies and strategies on controlling malaria.
WHO Country Page
The profile features selected indicators, disease outbreaks and vital statistics.
WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific Country Page
This Web site includes information on specific health topics in Nepal, including malaria.
WHO/WPRO Malaria Page
This Web site includes information on malaria in the region, related resources, event listings and relevant publications.
World Malaria Report. WHO/UNICEF/RBM, May 2005.
This report finds that an estimated 350 million to 500 million malaria cases occur worldwide annually and urges malaria prevention and treatment initiatives to target HIV-positive people, pregnant women and children under five.
World Malaria Report 2005 Country Profile
This profile provides information on Nepal's national malaria control program, disease burden, funding levels and access to prevention and treatment programs.
Wijeyaratne, Panduka.
An Inventory on Malaria Drug Resistance in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal. Environmental Health Project, June 2004.
This report documents the status of drug-resistant malaria in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indian and Nepal.
A goal of anything short of eradication would be unethical and a bad business decision, despite unsuccessful efforts to stamp out the disease in the 1950s and 1960s, Melinda Gates said.
"It's a long-term goal; it won't come soon," she said, "but to aspire to anything less is just far too timid a goal for the age we're in. It's a waste of the world's talent and it's a waste of the world's intelligence, and it's wrong and unfair to the people who are suffering from this disease."
She said the world wasn't ready for a long fight against malaria 50 years ago, and when drugs and pesticides started failing, enthusiasm faded and funding almost disappeared. Malaria was eliminated from the United States and other developed countries at that time.
She is co-chairwoman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has committed $860 million to malaria programs and another $650 million to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Bill Gates promised the foundation's enthusiasm for the cause would never lag. He said many others would contribute money and commitment as long as those attending the organization's first malaria forum keep showing the world they can achieve their goals.
"If you show the world that we can end this disease, you will unleash the energy and the caring the commitment we need to meet that goal," he said. "We're not done and we will not stop working until malaria is eradicated."
Malaria kills more than a million people each year, most of them children. Deaths doubled in Africa over the past 20 years as malaria grew resistant to existing drugs and insecticides. New efforts to control the spread of the disease and develop new medicine and vaccines are starting to show results, according to a UNICEF report issued Tuesday.
Millions of insecticide-treated bed nets are being distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The newest treatment for the disease is reaching community health clinics in some countries. Four new vaccines are being prepared for large scale testing on humans as early as 2008.
After the Gates' presentation, conference participants said eradication should be possible as long as people and groups like the Gates Foundation continue to provide support.
"Funding for malaria is gaining momentum. Some years back you couldn't even get money for research. If that momentum grows over time, and people get the money to do more work, we will transform control to eradication," said Seth Owusu-Agyei, an epidemiologist with the Kintampo Health Research Centre in Kintampo, Ghana.
Owusu-Agyei led a team that recently completed a successful small trial of a new malaria vaccine for children developed by GlaxoSmithKline. Study results were released Wednesday in a paper published online in The Lancet.
The vaccine was found to be safe for infants and 35 percent effective in preventing new infections over a six-month period in infants. The same vaccine was found to be 45 percent effective among children age one to four.
Cooperation among those fighting the disease and developing vaccines, medications and insect control is key to achieving eradication, said Christian Loucq, director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative,.
"The big risk is if you don't reach (eradication) soon, fatigue will come," Loucq said.
He and other emphasized the need for more money and coordination of efforts. He said the $107 million cost of a single one large-scale trial of a new vaccine, or phase three trial, shows the need for planning by organizations and governments.
Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, urged scientists and policy makers not be territorial in their work or waste time debating whether eradication is possible because, "as we are talking here, children are dying."
The World Health Organization pledges to do whatever it can to bring about an end to malaria, Chan said.
"We have to make it work in the interest of humanity," she said. "I dare you to come along with us." - Source
Useful Links
Nepal: Malaria - Global health
Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- Portfolio of Grants in Nepal
This site provides a brief description of the national epidemic and details of malaria projects supported by the fund.
Nepal Ministry of Health and Population Malaria Control
This page outlines the Nepalese government's policies and strategies on controlling malaria.
WHO Country Page
The profile features selected indicators, disease outbreaks and vital statistics.
WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific Country Page
This Web site includes information on specific health topics in Nepal, including malaria.
WHO/WPRO Malaria Page
This Web site includes information on malaria in the region, related resources, event listings and relevant publications.
World Malaria Report. WHO/UNICEF/RBM, May 2005.
This report finds that an estimated 350 million to 500 million malaria cases occur worldwide annually and urges malaria prevention and treatment initiatives to target HIV-positive people, pregnant women and children under five.
World Malaria Report 2005 Country Profile
This profile provides information on Nepal's national malaria control program, disease burden, funding levels and access to prevention and treatment programs.
Wijeyaratne, Panduka.
An Inventory on Malaria Drug Resistance in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal. Environmental Health Project, June 2004.
This report documents the status of drug-resistant malaria in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indian and Nepal.
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 |  Successful Malaria Vaccine Also Proves Effective in InfantsA baby born in sub-Saharan Africa faces a lifetime of health risks, but none more challenging than surviving its first five years. A major reason for that is malaria, a parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes. Of the more than one million malaria deaths worldwide annually, roughly 90 percent are in children under five years of age and as many as 50 percent of the severe cases occur in babies under 18 months of age. But new results indicate that a vaccine previously shown to be safe and effective in adults and small children can also be safely administered to infants, potentially dramatically decreasing their risk of contracting the disease. "In endemic areas, and particularly in the high-transmission areas of sub-Saharan Africa, children under one year of age carry a disproportionately high burden of disease," says physician Pedro Alonso, director of the Barcelona Center for International Health Research at the Hospital Clinic of the University of Barcelona, who led the new clinical trial. "You need to get to them and protect them as early as possible." Researchers report in The Lancet that there were 62 percent fewer new cases of the disease among 214 infants between 10 and 18 months who had received the full three-dose course of the RTS,S/AS02A vaccine during this trial. And among all infants from a rural area in southern Mozambique who had received at least one injection, there were 35 percent fewer malaria episodes. "As a father and a grandfather, and not just as a doctor and a policymaker, I tell you that this vaccine can make a profound difference in our lives," says physician Pascoal Mocumbi, a former Mozambican prime minister who also had served as health minister. This "will save lives." The clinical trial is one of many being undertaken to assess the safety of the RTS,S vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Researchers say that it caused initial pain at the injection site (the thigh in babies) but that no other serious side effects were reported. A previous study showed the vaccine, created in 1987, reduced the malaria risk of young children between one and four years by 30 percent—an inoculation that lasted for at least 18 months. The vaccine also protected 34 percent of men in a study in Gambia. RTS,S works by fusing a protein secreted by the malaria parasite with a molecule on the surface of hepatitis B virus that the human immune system recognizes and attacks. The researchers speculate that it works much like other vaccines, especially because the amount of protection conferred depends on the amount of malaria antibodies in the blood and malaria-recognizing, disease-fighting T cells in the liver. Neither on its own is sufficient, however, according to physician W. Ripley Ballou, vice president of global clinical research and development at GSK Biologicals. "There is something really important," he says, "in having both arms of the immune system working." A large trial to determine the overall efficacy of the vaccine in children of all ages is expected to begin late next year, assuming results from ongoing safety trials continue to be positive. That trial will enroll at least 16,000 children from as many as 10 areas in seven African countries, Ballou says. It will investigate, among other things, whether adding a booster shot later in life provides added protection. The good news is that the vaccine appears to be effective against all strains of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, and those initially protected have not shown any rebound effects later in life. "The vaccine does not seem to protect specifically against certain parasites," says molecular biologist Joe Cohen, vice president of research and development for emerging diseases, HIV and vaccines at GSK Biologicals. But "this is a question that we will need to continue to address in further studies and even probably after the vaccine has been implemented," which could come as soon as 2011 if all trials go well. In the meantime, researchers are encouraged that the vaccine has proved especially effective in protecting the most vulnerable population: babies. In conjunction with other proven methods—treated bed nets and DDT spraying, as mandated by the Mozambican government—it could slash malaria infections and deaths in children. "We may be seeing the synergy that we would predict would exist between vaccination and other modalities of malaria control," Ballou says. And the vaccine may also provide broader benefits: "A vaccine acts as a magnet, drawing in multiple generations of a family for basic services when the children come to get vaccinated," Mozambique's Mocumbi says. "When we protect children we are investing for the future of our nation." - Source |
Posted 17-10-2007 at 09:52 PM by Angel  |
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