$3 billion for global malaria campaign

A group of international organizations, public and private, has pledged nearly $3.0 billion as part of a new scheme, the Global Malaria Action Plan, which aims to "eradicate malaria" by 2015. The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria is raising $1.6 billion and the World Bank a further $1.1 billion. The other major donor is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pledged $168.7 million to fund the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, an R&D project.

Bill Gates, the founder of software giant Microsoft, said: "we need innovation, new drugs and the most dramatic thing we need is vaccine." Some national governments, including the UK, have pledged funds to research the disease.