Bill Gates spray $168m on Africa

$168.7 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been made available to develop vaccines for malaria – a disease that kills thousands of African children every day. PATH has been tasked to use the money through its initiative to bring down malaria reported cases on the continent.The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) is working with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals to develop a first-generation vaccine candidate, known as RTS,S, which could become the first-ever approved malaria vaccine. With the new grant announced on Monday, MVI will support the development of next-generation vaccines that could provide even greater and longer-lasting protection.“I’m very hopeful that the malaria vaccine currently in advanced testing will be proven effective, but that will just be the first step,” said Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. “Now it’s time to develop a new generation of vaccines that are even more effective, and could someday help eradicate malaria altogether.”Gates announced the new funding at the UN Millennium Development Goals Malaria Summit, a meeting of heads of state, CEOs, UN officials, and other leaders held in the US.At the event, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership launched the Global Malaria Action Plan, a comprehensive global strategy to fight malaria. The Gates Foundation grant and other commitments announced would help address key priorities in the Action Plan. The grant would support MVI’s efforts to expand its vaccine R&D pipeline with projects ranging from early-stage laboratory research to advanced clinical testing. MVI will work with partners to discover new antigens and adjuvants that could lead to more effective vaccines, and develop new tools to select the most promising candidates for further development.MVI will also work to foster a more competitive vaccine marketplace and help ensure that future vaccines will be affordable and accessible in developing countries. They will conduct market assessments, demand forecasting, and modeling studies to guide policymakers and vaccine manufacturers, and partner with vaccine makers in developing countries to keep costs low.“These new funds are recognition that we have a solid research and development strategy, and the team to deliver on it,” said Dr. Christian Loucq, Director of MVI. “This commitment should signal to potential research partners that the time is ripe to work with us to help defeat this horrible disease. Already, we have added to our roster of partners and entered into collaborative agreements on vaccine components, ways to boost their potency, and methods for testing their biological activity.”“Our strategy for developing a malaria vaccine follows the PATH approach to neglected diseases, which has shown that investment in core areas of research and development, particularly vaccine technology, does yield important advances,” said Dr. Christopher J. Elias, president and CEO of PATH. “The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative is now ready to accelerate further the development of what the world urgently needs: safe, effective, and affordable vaccines that reduce the suffering caused by malaria.”The grant addresses one of the priorities in the new Global Malaria Action Plan, released today by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. The plan provides a unified global strategy for fighting malaria, including greater use of today’s tools, and research on vaccines and other new technologies.“The Global Malaria Action Plan makes a compelling case for greater investment in malaria,” said Gates. “If we have the chance to save millions of lives, and a clear plan to make it happen, we have an obligation to act. We’re committed to supporting a range of efforts to make the Action Plan a reality – today’s grant is just the first step.Gates hailed new data from the World Malaria Report, released last week by WHO, showing encouraging progress against malaria in several African countries through 2006. He also highlighted more recent data from Zambia and Ethiopia that further demonstrate the impact of aggressive, large-scale malaria control programs.The Zambian health ministry reported this week that since 2006, malaria control efforts have helped to reduce malaria parasite prevalence in children by 50%. Since 2002, the percentage of households with at least one insecticide-treated mosquito net has increased from 14% to 60%, and malaria control successes have helped to reduce overall child mortality by 29%.Earlier this month, Ethiopia’s health ministry announced that it has reached nearly 70% of households in high-risk areas with at least one insecticide-treated mosquito net and/or indoor residual spraying, and that effective malaria treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapy is now available nationwide.“The good news from Ethiopia and Zambia demonstrates that extraordinary progress can be made against malaria, even in the poorest and most remote communities,” said Gates. “By building on and replicating these successes globally, we can save millions of lives.”Both countries are partners in the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA), a PATH initiative that is funded by the Gates Foundation.

Fiction on Somalia wins award

A fiction on environmental and cultural devastation in Somalia – Charcoal Traffic – has won the Best Short Fiction award at the San Francisco, California (USA) VideoFest. It is a story of two brothers trapped in a murderous cycle of environmental and cultural devastation in Somalia.Charcoal Traffic has been selected and screened at 19 film festivals around the world, a press statement to AfricaNews from Hot Sun Foundation on Monday said. Santa Mukabanah, Hot Sun Foundation Communications Officer, who signed the statement said: “Charcoal Traffic is especially close to our hearts considering that one of the co-founders of Hot Sun Foundation, Mr. Gordon Ojiambo co-produced the short film. He is a testament of the unique creativity available in the Kibera slum.”It added: “Charcoal Traffic is the world’s first short fictional film based on Somali pastoral culture. It was shot entirely on location in northern Somalia under very challenging conditions due to almost 20 years of civil war.”What makes the movie unique, the statement said, is that it is made up of an entirely local Somali cast with no previous acting experience. It was acted in the Somali language but with English subtitles for international viewers.Charcoal Traffic was directed by Nathan Collett, assisted by Godfrey Ojiambo, and co-produced by international award winning environmentalist, Fatima Jibrell with James Lindsay, co-founder of Sun Fire Cooking. Godfrey Ojiambo, resident of Kibera and trustee of Hot Sun Foundation, travelled with Nathan Collett to Somalia to film Charcoal Traffic. The BEST SHORT FICTION AWARD would to be presented to Charcoal Traffic during the VideoFest in San Francisco, California, October 17-18, 2008. Charcoal Traffic was made possible because of an alliance between two unique east African organizations – Sun Fire Cooking and Hot Sun Films.

Zambia holds election end of October

Zambia would hold its much-awaited presidential elections on October 30 following the death of president Levy Mwanawasa. The late president, who was buried early this month in Lusaka, died last month in France. He got ill in Egypt whilst attending the African Union (AU) summit.According to the southern African country’s Article 38, section one (1) and section 20 of the Electoral Act No. 12 of 2006, presidential elections should be held within 90 days of the death of a sitting president.A report quoted acting president Rupiah Banda recently as saying the government had started preparing for the presidential elections adding that it would be held on October 30.”Therefore, I have the honour to announce that the programme of conducting presidential by-election has been finally established. The presidential by-election shall therefore be held on Thursday, 30 October 2008,” Banda said.The report further said at least three political parties have indicated participation in the forthcoming presidential by-election namely Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), two opposition parties, United Party for National Development (UPND) and the Patriotic Front.UPND is set to be led by Hakainde Hichilema, with top politician Michael Sata, representing the PF party. However, the opposition United Liberal Party and All People’s Congress would not take part in the elections and instead they would support MMD which will be represented by the acting president.Zambia has won donor support under the leadership of Mwanawasa who among others stepped up the corruption fight.

SA: Mandela hails new president

Nelson Mandela has praised new president, Kgalema Motlanthe, describing him as a principled leader who deserved the seat. Mandela who is well respected the world over for his humbleness and fight against the HIV/AIDS said the southern African country was in safe hands with Motlanthe as the president.“We have known you for a long time and you are eminently deserving of this high honour,” he said in a letter.He said the new president has all the qualities of uniting the country. Mandela is quoted as saying the new president was quiet, firm and a principled leader. One who puts reason above emotions, Reuters reported.The new president rose to the helm of president to replace Thabo Mbeki, who was ousted by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) last weekend amid accusations he abused his power. Mbeki who took over from Mandela as president of  South Africa in 1999 was defeated by Jacob Zuma to the seat of the ANC leadership in December and since then the two have been in rivalry.