Bill Gates Donates $750 Million to Help Fight Malaria

Last week, Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates pledged $750 million (yes, you heard that correctly, $750 million) to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The fund had to cancel over $1 billion of spending last year that would have gone to expanding programs fighting the diseases. Gates explained “These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world’s poorest" – source.

The Global Fund was created in 2002 “to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need,” source. In the case of malaria, the Global Fund has helped to provide over 230 million mosquito nets to protect against infection. 230 million malaria drug treatments have also been send to Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where the spread of malaria is most prevalent.

We’re happy to see that a big name like Bill Gates is bringing more attention to something that is dear to our heart: fighting malaria. What a lot of people don’t know is that malaria was common in the United States until the 1940s when National Malaria Eradication Program addressed the growing problem. The program included “drainage, removal of mosquito breeding sites and misting of insecticides.” – source.

Malaria is both preventable and treatable, yet it still takes a life every minute. Every minute! To do our part, Mosquito Squad has partnered with Malaria No More in their quest to end malaria deaths by 2015. If you are interested in donating, please visit SwatMalaria.net.