WASHINGTON: US philanthropist Bill Gates on Sunday announced he will donate over $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 CEO told the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans that his Gates Foundation is committing more than $500 million in 2014 “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,” a statement said.

Gates also said that in addition to that pledge, his foundation has 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,”.

“The Ebola epidemic has shown, once again, that in today’s interconnected world, health challenges anywhere create health challenges everywhere — and the best way to overcome those challenges is to dedicate ourselves to the great cause of reducing the global burden of infectious disease,” Gates said in his prepared remarks.

Published in Dawn, November 4th , 2014