The money will come in four grants, aimed at fighting hookworm, leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Each year, the diseases kill hundreds of thousands of people, yet there is still no vaccine and there are only a few drugs to fight them once a person becomes ill.
Tachi Yamada, president of the global health program at the Gates Foundation says, "Many of the world's most debilitating illnesses are virtually unheard of in the rich world. But they're a fact of life for millions of people in poor countries."
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the largest of the four grants will give $32 million to the Seattle-based Infectious Disease Research Institute to speed up development of a vaccine for leishmaniasis. This parasitic disease affects more than 12 million people worldwide and kills thousands each year, the World Health Organization said. Researchers at the institute, who already have a candidate vaccine developed, plan to use the Gates Foundation money to pay for clinical trials.
