IVCC today commended the United Kingdom following the announcement that the UK will contribute £1billion (US $1.6 billion) over the next three years to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tubercolosis and Malaria.
Dr Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC, said that this was a major contribution to saving lives and improving health amongst some of the poorest people in the world. 'Malaria causes over 660,000 deaths each year, mainly amongst children under the age of five, and more than 216 million people are stricken with the disease. This generous commitment by the UK will unlock substantial additional funds that will go a long way towards seeing the end of this debilitating disease.'
This contribution to the Global Fund is part of the UK Government's commitment to combating diseases that place an enormous burden on the world's poor by supporting and developing technologies that improve the health of the poorest people through better treatment and prevention. Earlier this year the Department for International Development, which leads the UK's efforts to end extreme poverty, awarded IVCC £12 million to support the development of new insecticides to combat malaria.
Since it was formed in 2005 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IVCC has worked with some of the world's leading agrochemical companies to identify new active ingredients that will form the basis of totally new insecticide solutions for malaria prevention, and ultimately help to bring about the eradication of the disease. Companies partnering with IVCC have recently introduced two new insecticide formulations that prolong the effective life of current interventions and are proving to be valuable additional tools for malaria prevention.
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