Gates funds British research into tropical disease

LONDON - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, has given British scientists 23 million dollars to fight tropical diseases, the scientists announced Wednesday.

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine received the grant for research into the parasitic worm disease human filariasis, which causes a range of diseases affecting more than 150 million of the world's poorest people.

Among the diseases are elephantiasis, which causes massive swelling of the legs and genitals, as well as onchocerciasis, otherwise known as river blindness.

Scientists led by Mark Taylor will use the funds to develop and screen thousands of new combinations of potential filariasis drugs.

Taylor said they were developing a drug to kill a bacteria inside the worm which was essential for its survival.

"Our aim is to obtain a safe and easily administered anti-symbiotic drug combination to kill the bacteria in a shorter period, reducing the time needed for programmes to eliminate adult worms from an endemic area," he said.

"Importantly, it could add another weapon in the armoury against these diseases," he said.

The scientists will work with an international consortium of six academic and industrial partners.

"The fight against filariasis requires multiple approaches -- we must expand the use of available drugs and also accelerate research on new drugs," said Regina Rabinovich, director of infectious diseases for the Gates Foundation.

In 2005, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated millions of dollars to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for research into malaria.

Bankrolled by a war chest of almost 30 billion dollars in profits donated by the Microsoft co-founder, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invests by the billions of dollars in AIDS programs and vaccinations against tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases still troubling developing countries.

As a sign of the foundation's rising profile, Bill Gates in May 2005 delivered one of the keynote addresses at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization in Geneva before ministers from 192 members.

Agence France-Presse