Given the threat, the U.S. Army did send out a crack team to do battle. But it was sent to Seattle, armed with microscopes, cell cultures, computers, and funding from Bill Gates. He and colleagues from Walter Reed will work with the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, a private organization located at the north end of Queen Anne that specializes in infectious diseases of the developing world. It was a big boost for the small, non-profit firm but just a fraction of what Gates has done for malaria research worldwide. The money for malaria is one arm of a much broader, multibillion-dollar global health initiative that Gates helped launch last year aimed at achieving major reductions in disease in poor countries.
Vaccines are the weapons of choice.
Gates' investment in fighting Third World diseases has galvanized the worldwide community, Rabinovich said. The world should have a sense of impatience rather than a sense of resignation. In that spirit, children in Gambia last week received an experimental malaria vaccine as part of a new clinical trial Rabinovich helped set up with Britain's Medical Research Council. MRC scientists have worked in this tiny West African nation for years. The vaccine, developed by scientists at Walter Reed and GlaxoSmithKline, had been tested in adults and shown to provide temporary immunity.