GOOGLE JOINS FIGHT TO to support the collection and analysis of blood samples of humans and
animals in hot spots within Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the
PREVENT FUTURE PANDEMICS Congo (DRC), China, Madagascar and Southeast Asia.
■ Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health - A $2.5
Search engine company Google announced in October that it award- million grant to support research to accelerate the discovery of new
ed grants of more than $14 million to support researchers in Africa pathogens, and to enable a rapid regional response to outbreaks by es-
and Southeast Asia who are working to prevent the next pandemic. tablishing molecular diagnostics in vulnerable countries including Si-
The initiative, known as Predict and Prevent, will be part of a glob- erra Leone and Bangladesh.
al effort to identify hot spots where diseases may emerge, detect new ■ Children’s Hospital Corporation supporting Healthmap and
pathogens circulating in animal and human populations, and respond ProMED-mail - A $3 million grant to combine HealthMap’s digital de-
to outbreaks before they become global crises. tection efforts with ProMED-mail’s global network of human, animal,
“Business as usual won’t pre- and ecosystem health specialists. Together, these programs will assess
vent the next AIDS or SARS. The current emerging disease reporting systems, expand regional networks
teams we’re funding today are on in Africa and Southeast Asia, and develop new tools to improve the
the frontiers of digital and genetic detection and reporting of outbreaks. HealthMap brings together dis-
early detection technology. We parate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the
hope that their work, with part- current global state of infectious diseases. ProMED-mail is a global re-
ners across environmental, animal porting system for outbreaks of emerging diseases.
and health boundaries, will help
solve centuries-old problems and AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA
save millions of lives,” said Dr.
Larry Brilliant, Executive Director
Kenyan farmers examine their
of Google.org, the company’s phil- GLOBAL FUND APPROVES
poultry after an outbreak of avian
anthropic arm.
New infectious diseases occur RECORD SUM IN NEW GRANTS
influenza in Sudan every year; recent examples in- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced
clude HIV/AIDS, SARS (Severe in November that it approved $2.75 billion in new grants, more than
Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and avian influenza. Three-quarters of twice the sum approved to date by the Fund’s board in one funding
those new diseases are zoonoses, that is, they have jumped from ani- cycle. The majority of the resources - 51% - will go to malaria pro-
mals to humans. grams, with proposals for AIDS and tuberculosis receiving 38% and
In addition, the Predict and Prevent initiative aims to support sci- 11% respectively.
entists seeking to predict and avert outbreaks of established diseases “This is the highest amount of new financing approved by the Glob-
before they happen by using a range of tools such as long-term weather al Fund ever. These new resources will significantly help the world in
forecasts, deforestation maps, genetic detection of new pathogens and achieving global targets such as universal access to AIDS treatment and
the development of digital models. prevention, and cutting the number of deaths from tuberculosis and
Organizations receiving grants include: malaria by half by 2015,” said Mr. Rajat Gupta, Chair of the Global Fund
■ The Massachussetts-based Woods Hole Research Center - A $2 Board.
million grant to support high-resolution satellite mapping of forests to Most of the new funding - 77% - has been earmarked for Africa and
enhance monitoring of forest loss and settlement expansion in tropical the Middle East. Asia and the Western Pacific will receive 14%, Latin
countries. The Center will create information to share with environ- America and the Caribbean 6%, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia
mental and human experts so they can better anticipate the emergence 6%. Twenty-eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa received grants, with
of infectious diseases. the largest sums going to Nigeria ($409.4 million), Tanzania ($264.7
■ Columbia University International Research Institute for Climate million), the Democratic Republic of Congo ($233.2 million), Zimba-
and Society - A $900,000 grant to improve the use of forecasts, rainfall bwe ($187.3 million), Ethiopia ($148.4 million) and Zambia ($144.1
data and other climate information in East Africa, and to link weather million).
and climate experts to health professionals so they can better predict The Global Fund is a public-private partnership between govern-
the outbreak of infectious diseases. ments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities. It
■ University Corporation for Atmospheric Research - A $900,000 works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral orga-
grant to build and implement a system that will use weather projections nizations to supplement existing efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculo-
to inform and target responses to disease threats in West Africa. sis and malaria. To date, the Global Fund has committed $11.3 billion
■ Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI) - A $5.5 million grant in 140 countries.
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