Gates Foundation to spend US$500m stopping malaria and other diseases

US billionaire Bill Gates will donate more than US$500 million to fight malaria and other infectious diseases in the developing world, saying the Ebola outbreak is a call to action.

The former Microsoft chief told the annual meeting on Sunday of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans that his foundation was committing the money this year "to reduce the burden of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoeal diseases, and an array of parasitic infections that are leading causes of death and disability in developing countries."

Gates also said that in addition to that pledge, his foundation had boosted its annual funding for malaria by 30 per cent.

Gates described the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 4,900 people in West Africa since the beginning of the year as a "critical moment in the history of global health", and said the outbreak underscored the need for stronger efforts to stay ahead of threats such as drug-resistant malaria and dengue fever.

The more than US$500 million announced on Sunday included US$150 million to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to advance development of next-generation malaria vaccines.

Gates said the rise in resistance to effective malaria drugs in Southeast Asia should serve as a warning that better research and development was needed to "stay ahead of the natural evolution of infectious diseases".

His plan includes developing a drug or vaccine to purge the malaria parasite in people who carry it without showing symptoms, a "human reservoir" that helps spread the disease.