OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso, October 2, 2024 -/African Media Agency (AMA)/- As an African scientist committed with conviction to malaria research, Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté, head of the medical entomology and parasitology department at the he Health Sciences Research Institute of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, and principal investigator of Target Malaria Burkina Faso, recently participated in a Netflix series called “What’s Next? The future according to Bill Gates.
The documentary series is an excellent platform to show how Professor Diabaté, Target Malaria and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are building bridges between science and philanthropy to foster creativity, innovation and sustainable solutions, with a view to advancing global health, and more particularly the fight against malaria in Africa.
Episode 5, “Can we trick illness? , directed by Alex Braverman, focuses on the history of malaria and current efforts to find new strategies in Africa, such as vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and genetically modified mosquitoes. In this episode, Professor Diabaté engages in a candid conversation with Bill Gates, arguing that if malaria killed 600,000 people in the United States or Europe, the problem would have already changed significantly.
“Malaria is closely linked to poverty, and being poor is very expensive. Every year, 200 million cases are recorded worldwide and around 600,000 people die. Most of these deaths occur in Africa, where children and pregnant women pay the highest price,” explains Professor Diabaté. “I want to raise global awareness of the impact of the disease on livelihoods and economies, while ensuring that African voices and expertise play a central role in the development and evaluation of innovative technologies .”
Impact of malaria in Africa
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that in 2022, Africa will account for 94% of malaria cases (233 million) and 95% (580,000) of deaths from the disease. Children under five years old accounted for approximately 78% of all malaria deaths.
Earlier this year, Professor Diabaté was a speaker at the annual TED conference to speak about his personal experience with malaria, a personal motivation for his tireless efforts to develop new tools to fight the disease in Africa.
Economic impact of malaria
Malaria No More (MNM) UK commissioned Oxford Economics Africa to assess the future economic impact of malaria on countries most at risk of the disease, as well as across Africa and the world. The Malaria Dividend report demonstrates that the potential global economic gains from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in all malaria-endemic countries could significantly increase these countries’ GDP by $142.7 billion. of dollars. The research also showed that achieving this target could generate $31 billion in additional exports to some of the worst-affected malaria-endemic countries in Africa, with an increase of almost $4 billion for countries of the G7.
Financing, innovation and capacity building
Investments in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria have saved 65 million lives and reduced the combined mortality rate from the three diseases by 61% since 2002, according to a new report from the Global Fund. global accelerated the equitable deployment of prevention, testing and treatment tools, including the distribution of 227 million mosquito nets, the screening of 335 million suspected malaria cases and the treatment of 171 million malaria cases.
The need for new tools
Despite this progress, progress in the fight against malaria is stagnating, with 5 million new cases in 2022 compared to 2021. A series of factors are involved: the resistance of mosquitoes to the most common insecticides, the resistance of the parasite to artemisinin-based combination therapies (the best treatments available today), climate change influencing the spread of malaria mosquitoes, and changing mosquito biting behavior. WHO noted that continued investment in the development and deployment of new malaria vaccines and next-generation tools will be critical to achieving the global malaria targets by 2030.
The future of gene drive technology
“More money is spent on medicines against baldness than on the fight against malaria. I was shocked to see how little money was going to malaria research,” Bill Gates says in the episode.
Target Malaria innovates by using gene drive technology, a natural genetic mechanism, to disseminate a genetic modification in malaria-carrying mosquitoes, in order to modify the rate of heredity and influence their ability to reproduce. This innovative approach promises to be a sustainable and cost-effective method to reduce the malaria mosquito population and ultimately end malaria transmission.
“We don’t have gene-driven mosquitoes in Africa yet, for many reasons. There are a lot of things to put in place to ensure we have something solid and safe for the community and the environment,” added Professor Diabaté.
“It would be one of humanity’s greatest achievements to end malaria,” Bill Gates concluded.
The documentary has been broadcast since September 18 on the streaming site Netflix.
For more information:
Documentary series on Netflix:
Professor Abdoulaye Diabaté’s article about his participation:
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) pour Target Malaria.
About Target Malaria:
Target Malaria is a non-profit research consortium that aims to develop and share new, cost-effective and sustainable genetic technologies to modify mosquitoes and reduce malaria transmission. Our vision is to contribute to a world without malaria. We strive for excellence in all areas of our work, creating a path for responsible research and development of genetic technologies, such as gene driving.
www.targetmalaria.org
Target Malaria receives core funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Open Philanthropy. The lead beneficiary organization is Imperial College London with partners in Africa, Europe and North America.
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Source : African Media Agency (AMA)
2024-10-02 15:49:28
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