Gates Foundation, Abu Dhabi Pair to Fight Forgotten Diseases
November 15 2017 - 2:51PM
Dow Jones News
By Peter Wonacott in Abu Dhabi and Betsy McKay in Atlanta
To tackle dangerous but curable tropical diseases in poor
countries, the global health community is following the money --
increasingly to the Persian Gulf.
On Wednesday, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin
Zayed Al Nahyan launched a fund with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation to eliminate two persistent and debilitating neglected
tropical diseases.
The $100 million fund will seek to eliminate river blindness, or
onchocerciasis, and lymphatic filariasis, which leads to a
condition known as elephantiasis, from countries where they
circulate in Africa and the Middle East. The Crown Prince will
donate $20 million and the Gates Foundation 20% of the total amount
raised to the new "Reaching the Last Mile Fund," with a plan to
raise the remaining $60 million from others in the region and
beyond.
Beyond the capital commitments, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Merck
& Co. are also supporting the eradication effort. GSK will
supply treatment to deworm children in target countries while Merck
will donate the medication ivermectin to treat parasites linked to
lymphatic filariasis and river blindness.
"If we don't double down on investments in innovation, more
children will die needlessly and poor health will continue to hold
back millions of people and limit the economic potential of many
developing countries, " Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist
and co-chair of the Gates Foundation, told a forum in Abu
Dhabi.
The new fund highlights the Crown Prince's and the United Arab
Emirates' emerging role in global aid, including global health
causes. "The U.A.E. is quite a significant giver," Mr. Gates said
in an interview.
As many as 120 million people in 36 countries are at risk of
river blindness, mostly in Africa but also in Latin America and in
Yemen. The disease is transmitted by black flies that deposit
larvae on human skin, which develop into parasitic worms that cause
skin rashes, depigmentation and eye infections that can lead to
blindness.
Lymphatic filariasis is an infection caused by parasitic worms
that are transmitted by mosquitoes and settle into the human
lymphatic system. They can remain there for years before causing
disfiguring, painful swelling of body parts, resulting in severe
disability. An estimated 856 million people in 52 countries are at
risk of infection.
Both diseases are treatable with existing drugs that kill the
parasites.
The Gates Foundation, and Mr. Gates personally, are working to
persuade the U.A.E., other Middle Eastern countries and rich
individuals to contribute more funds to global health as part of
its overall philanthropic endeavors, which include humanitarian
relief as a result of the Syrian war.
"Overall, the amount of philanthropy in this region if you
define it broadly is as high as anywhere in the world, probably
higher," Mr. Gates said.
For three of the past four years, from 2013-2016, the U.A.E. has
ranked first among aid donors based on a percentage of gross
national income, according to the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development.
U.A.E. founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan began donating
to disease-eradication efforts nearly three decades ago, forming a
partnership with the Carter Center, the human-rights nonprofit
founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife,
Rosalynn, which leads a global push to eradicate or eliminate
neglected tropical diseases.
Between 2011 and 2016, the U.A.E. donated $120 million to help
wipe out polio, a priority for the Gates Foundation. The virus
continues to circulate in pockets of Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Nigeria. The Crown Prince has also donated to malaria-elimination
programs.
Reem Al Hashimy, U.A.E.'s minister of state for international
cooperation, says the country needs to join forces with other
donors, governments and private companies -- and learn from each
other -- to tackle complex global challenges in local settings.
That includes curable diseases that persist in poor and broken
health systems, said Maha Barakat, director-general of the health
authority for the Abu Dhabi government.
"The last mile of these diseases is the most difficult," she
said. "Once you're done, the world will be rid of these diseases
forever."
Write to Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com and Betsy
McKay at betsy.mckay@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 15, 2017 14:36 ET (19:36 GMT)
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