'There's no reason only poor people should get malaria'

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

The moment Bill Gates released jar of mosquitoes at packed conference

It was a show-stopping move by any standards.

Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft and a renowned philanthropist, let loose a swarm of mosquitoes at a technology conference in California to highlight the dangers of malaria.

‘Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,’ the Microsoft founder yelled at a well-heeled crowd at a technology conference in California.

’I brought some,’ he added. ‘Here, I’ll let them roam around – there is no reason only poor people should be infected.

He let the shocked audience sweat for a minute or so before assuring them that the freed insects were malaria- free.

But that didn’t satisfy all the attendees.

‘That’s it. I am not sitting up front anymore,’ eBay founder Pierre Omidyar said.

The stunt was an attempt by Gates – who quit Microsoft last year to concentrate on his charity work - to hammer home the importance of malaria prevention.

It is one of the pet projects of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that announced last year it was donating £115 million to help develop a vaccine for the deadly disease.

Up to 2.7 million people a year still die of malaria each year, 75 per cent of them African children.

Although malaria has been eradicated in most countries with temperate climates, it is still prevalent on continents like Africa and Asia, which have tropical or subtropical climates.

Gates was speaking at the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Long Beach, California which attracts the great and the good from the worlds of science, technology, business, entertainment and academia.

The organisers of the TED conference said it was an 'amazing moment' and provided the audience with 'food for thought'.

Chris Anderson, curator of the show, quipped that the moment should be headlined, 'Gates releases more bugs into the world'.

Gates said more money was being spent finding a cure for baldness than developing drugs to combat malaria.

'Now, baldness is a terrible thing and rich men are afflicted,' he joked. 'That is why that priority has been set.

'The market does not drive scientists, thinkers, or governments to do the right things. Only by paying attention and making people care can we make as much progress as we need to.'

He called for greater distribution of insect nets and other protective gear, and revealed that an anti-malaria vaccine funded by his foundation and currently in development would enter a more advanced testing phase in the coming months.

'I am an optimist; I think any tough problem can be solved,' he said.

[TitsMcGee]

I have a sneeking suspision that the mosquitoes can't tell who's rich or poor.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Prolly not, but rich peole dont live where mosquitoes live.

[TitsMcGee]

Prolly not, but rich peole dont live where mosquitoes live.

thats because the smog would kill them. I unfortunatly not so lucky.

[Scary Guy]

That was such a cool super-villain thing to do and it made me giggle with glee the first time I heard it.

Still I can't wait to see the class action lawsuit that comes from that.

[phee]

That was such a cool super-villain thing to do and it made me giggle with glee the first time I heard it.

Still I can't wait to see the class action lawsuit that comes from that.

That is a good point..... it's like the beginning of a bond movie