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<DIV><FONT class=subHead>INFECTIOUS DISEASES: </FONT><FONT
class=body><B>Gates Foundation Gives $4.6M For Neglected
Ills</B></FONT></DIV><FONT class=body>
<P>The <A href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.asp">Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation</A> yesterday awarded grants totaling $4.6 million to the
<A href="http://www.oneworldhealth.org/index.html">Institute of OneWorld
Health</A> to fund drug development for two neglected parasitic
diseases.</P>
<P>The foundation is giving $4.2 million to the institute for a joint project
with the <STRONG>World Health Organization </STRONG>and the <A
href="http://www.ida.nl/">International Dispensary Association</A> to
further development of a new drug for visceral leishmaniasis, a disease
sometimes known as "black fever" that threatens over 350 million people
across the globe.</P>
<P>Another $476,100 is to enable the institute to finish testing of a drug
to fight Chagas disease, which kills 50,000 people annually in Latin
America and afflicts more than 16 million worldwide.</P>
<P><STRONG>Sally Stansfield</STRONG>, the foundation's acting infectious
diseases and vaccines chief, said a current West Nile virus outbreak in the
United States "reminds us all that we are interconnected across borders and
oceans and that we must never neglect efforts to prevent these infectious
diseases" (<A
href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/globalhealth/infectiousdiseasevaccines/vaccines/announcements/announce-020814.htm">Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation release</A>, Aug. 14).</P></FONT><A class=link1
href="http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/current.asp#contents" target=_top>(Back
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