Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday September 21, 2003
Claire Keeton
Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has contributed more money than the US and European governments to fighting malaria.
Mozambican-based malaria expert Pedro Alonso, the scientific director of the Manhica Health Research Centre, said he hoped Gates's contribution would encourage governments to follow suit.
"One individual who is well off has focused a lot of money to support the development of new and improved tools for malaria control. The US and European governments are putting in less money than a single individual to combat malaria."
Gates - who was named the richest man in the world by Forbes magazine on Thursday, with a personal fortune of $46-billion - will visit Botswana and South Africa during his whistle-stop tour. He is accompanied by his wife, Melinda. The trip marks the first time the couple have travelled together for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Today the Gateses will announce a substantial donation to Mozambique, adding to the 120-million allocated for malaria projects.
The foundation has donated almost $1-billion to health projects in Africa, targeting diseases that have been neglected by international drug companies. Altogether, the foundation has donated almost $3.5-billion in grants for global health since 2000.
The World Health Organisation said malaria was the biggest killer of children in Africa, claiming the lives of about 3 000 children under five every day. It causes more than 900 000 deaths in Africa every year.
On Friday the Gates Foundation's deputy director for public affairs, Jacquelline Fuller, said the visit would give the couple "a chance to meet people hardest hit by the disease".
"They are visiting to learn more about the scientific side of illnesses [and to] talk to people affected by them and to researchers and doctors on the ground," she said.
Today they will visit a village near Maputo, the Manhica Health Research Centre, which is testing a malaria vaccine, and a treatment centre. They will meet Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi and his health minister.
Alonso said malaria was a "deadly disease which is both a cause and consequence of poverty. It causes suffering, death and huge economic losses."
Tomorrow the couple will join former South African President Nelson Mandela and his wife, Gra a Machel, at an HIV/Aids youth forum in central Johannesburg.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation plays a leading role in HIV/Aids programmes in South Africa and Gates has funded several of its Aids projects. Fuller described Mandela and Gates as "friends".
"It is a high priority for both families to use the spotlight which shines on them to raise the urgency around HIV and to help reduce its stigma," she said.
The Gateses' final official stop is in Botswana, where they will review the African Comprehensive HIV/Aids Partnership (a public-private partnership responsible for the funding and development of the national HIV/Aids programme) to which they have donated $50-million.
The partnership, with the Botswana government and drug company Merck, is facilitating the roll-out of antiretroviral treatment in Botswana, where an estimated 38% of its sexually active population have HIV/Aids.
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