The Lord Speaker on the fight against malaria
7 November 2014 (updated on 7 November 2014)
Anyone who has experienced, or witnessed, a bout of malaria will know how devastating the fevers and convulsions can be. In my previous career, I have seen young healthy people collapsed by it in a matter of days and, in at least one of those cases, die by the roadside.
Health, according to the World Health Organisation, is not merely an absence of disease but must include an overall sense of well-being. Many of us in the industrial world take this for granted and, no matter how much we may choose to abuse our developed status through poor diet, drugs or alcohol, we do not generally have to cope with chronic ‘un-wellness’. It is, however, the unfortunate lot of so many people, most especially women, in lesser developed countries to face each day in a state of utter weariness, discomfort and pain.
Having spent so much of my adult life living and working in small communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South and South East Asia, I salute the courage of those who face daily life with such health burdens.
The Lord Speaker's lecture
I am delighted Mr Gates is speaking at the House of Lords on 10 November about the important work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to eliminate preventable diseases, particularly malaria.
In this first in a series of lectures given by a visiting speaker, Mr Gates will outline his vision to eradicate malaria within a generation, to an audience of parliamentarians and invited guests.
Working to eradicate malaria
The death toll from malaria in many parts of the world is enormous and where it doesn’t actually kill, it weakens children and adults, affecting their resistance to other infections as well as their economic and social lives. Above all malaria is avoidable with relatively simple inputs and techniques, such as the provision of sleeping nets, the clearance of mosquito breeding grounds and accessible primary health care centres. In the longer term there is the increasingly realistic quest for a vaccine.
The philanthropy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is being harnessed to alleviate such suffering. This is in itself a humanitarian programme of immense value but also a strategy for improving the individual, economic social and cultural lives of us all.
Further information
- About the Lord Speaker
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (external website)
- Malaria No More UK (external website)