Gates gives $168M for research into malaria vaccines
By John Carroll

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is putting up $168 million to fund research into a new generation of malaria vaccines. The initiative is one of a broad range of new efforts around the globe aimed at eradicating malaria by 2015.

At a recent summit at the UN, donors committed $3 billion to the war against malaria. The World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria is putting up the lion's share of that money, with the British government and the Gates Foundation providing the rest. The donors believe that their efforts can save more than 4 million lives over the next seven years.

"We need innovation, new drugs, and the most dramatic thing we need is vaccine," says Gates.

The Gates foundation has donated nearly $1.5 billion to malaria research over the past 8 years. The organization came under scrutiny when WHO malaria chief, Dr. Arata Kochi accused the Foundation of creating funding practices among their network of top malaria scientists that caused scientists' research to be linked to those of others in the group, making it difficult for scientists to objectively evaluate each other's work. The Foundation denied that claim.

PAY ATTENTION TO RIGHTS IN HEALTH CARE DELIVERING, says Dr Chris van Tulleken,

Dr Chris van Tulleken, Patron of the medical aid agency Merlin, Honorary Lecturer at UCL, Registrar in Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine at University College Hospital, and a co-presenter of the Channel 4 series 'Medicine Men Go Wild', has called for a more equitable rights-based approach to delivering aid for public health in developing countries.

Speaking at the 2nd annual lecture on Malaria and Human Rights in London, organised by Malaria Consortium, a member of the European Alliance against Malaria, Dr van Tulleken highlighted the critical need to ensure community engagement and understanding when delivering health services. 'Unless community participation is ensured' he argued, 'delivering health services like malaria treatment may have unintended consequences'.

Drawing on experience working in Burma after Cyclone Nargis and in Congo Brazzaville, Dr van Tulleken highlighted the key components of a rights-based approach to delivering aid for public health, emphasising that interventions should not only be participatory, but also context-specific, non-discriminatory, accountable, accessible to the poorest and of high quality.

“There is a clear need to address the needs of the individual while trying to optimize the wellbeing of communities. We should not impose rights frameworks if they may jeopardize the autonomy of indigenous peoples, for example - but we should be bound to inform those with whom we work of their fundamental rights and deliver care based on our duties and not beneficence” he said.

In his summing up, the Executive Director of Malaria Consortium, and Chairperson for the occasion, Sunil Mehra said that “equality and dignity are at the core of what our response as health care actors in the developing world should be.”

The Lecture was attended by representatives from human rights organizations, academia, media, international humanitarian and development NGOs and the private and public sectors.

Source: Malaria Consortium, UK

STUDY LINKS TESTICULAR CANCER TO DDT, by Kakaire Kirunda
As the use of DDT to fight mosquitoes spreading Malaria in Uganda begins to take shape, it is emerging that men born to mothers exposed to lingering amounts of the pesticide might have an increased risk of getting testicular cancer.

This is according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, in the USA. The cancer that affects young men in their 20s and 30s is said to be on the increase around the world.
"Because evidence suggests that testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are initiated very early in life, it is possible that exposure to these persistent organic pesticides during fetal life or via breast feeding may increase the risk of TGCT in young men," the findings read in part.

Researchers examined blood samples from 739 men in the U.S. military who had testicular cancer and 915 men who did not. They found that men with the highest levels of DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene), which is created when the environment or body breaks down DDT, were 70 per cent more likely to develop testicular cancer than those who had the lowest levels of DDE.

In the early years of World War II, DDT was used with great effect to control mosquitoes spreading malaria, typhus, and other insect-borne diseases among both military and civilian populations.
As a result of their findings, the researchers want further examination of the association of pesticides such as DDT with testicular cancer in other populations, particularly given that more widespread use is being considered in the developing world.

Usage of DDT was condemned by environmentalists leading to its ban. But in Uganda, following approval from the National Environmental Management Authority, the government has re-introduced the chemical and spraying has kicked off in two northern districts of Apac and Oyam. Where it is being employed, usage of the chemical is under strict World Health Organisation guidelines.

Debate still rages over the human toll caused by the deadly malaria parasite and DDT's potential long-term harm to people's health and the environment.

Activists against the chemical argue that there are several alternatives that can be used to control malaria. But the government insists that internal residue spraying using DDT is the most cost effective malaria control method. Malaria kills more than 100,000 Ugandans, most of them children, every year.

Source:The Monitor (Kampala)