[Nigeria] Dangote, Bill Gates, others set up council to end malaria

At the just concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the platform, End Malaria Council, was formed to ensure malaria eradication assumes a top global priority.

The End Malaria Council is meant to drive global attention and funding to wipe out the disease for good.

Dangote has always canvassed for concerted efforts to rid Nigeria and Africa of malaria which he said decimates the African workforce and the young ones, thus slowing down its economic growth. According to him, the world without malaria is possible and that it is a challenge to all.

Falls in deaths and infections due to the mosquito-borne parasite in the past 15 years are "one of the greatest success stories in the history of public health", said Ray Chambers, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy.

And Gates, whose Gates Foundation commits vast funds to global health projects, said the world has never been closer to ending malaria once and for all. "We will not stop working until malaria is eradicated," Gates declared in 2007.

Now, half the world's nations are malaria-free, and since 2000, global malaria deaths have dropped by 60 percent. In Africa, where the vast majority of malaria deaths occur, the malaria death rate has come down by more than 70 percent.

But there's still much to do. Despite a steep rise in malaria spending from 2000 to 2010, it has now plateaued.

The End Malaria Council includes African leaders such as the President of Chad, Idriss Déby and former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete; Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote; and Luis Alberto Moreno, head of the Inter-American Development Bank.

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