Today in History

[lugan]

Bill Gates will not cure malaria, but he can apply and direct a lot of money to where it can do a lot of good:

2006 Jan 18, Gervan Lubbe, a South African inventor, was reported to have developed an anti-malaria wristwatch to help combat one of Africa's biggest killers by monitoring the blood of those who wear it and sounding an alarm when the parasite is detected.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jun 2, Four governments (Brazil, Chile, France, and Norway), the UN and the world's soccer federation launched a plan to use the proceeds of a new airline ticket tax to treat people in the developing world suffering from AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. Countries that have either approved or say they expect to approve a new airline ticket tax include Britain, Cyprus, Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius and Nicaragua.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, US researchers reported that astemizol, an allergy drug pulled off the market in 1999, could work to treat malaria. It was marketed under the brand name Hismanal by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, and can kill the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes malaria.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 13, A collaborative effort to study malaria went public via the Web site Africa@home. Project leaders planned to use spare computing capacity to study malaria. By July 19 it reached the stable level of some 5000 computers needed at this stage for MalariaControl.net.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.79)(http://africa-at-home.web.cern.ch/africa%2Dat%2Dhome/index.htm)
2006 Sep 14, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $68.2 million to fight parasitic diseases that included leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis and hookworm. The new money will support efficacy trials in India and Africa.
(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.A11)
2006 Sep 15, The World Health Organization declared its support for indoor use of DDT to control mosquitoes in regions where malaria is a major health problem.
(SFC, 9/16/06, p.A5)
2006 The WHO estimated that malaria infected up to 500 million people per year.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.71)