September 29, 2016

CURE ALL DISEASES?Mark Zuckerberg founded the Fa-cebook Company in 2004. Then, he was at university. His company has become the world’s best-known so-cial networking website. Mr. Zuck-erberg, who is 32 years of age, is now one of the world’s wealthiest people.

Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan

Mr. Zuckerberg is married to Dr. Priscilla Chan. She is a pediatrician, or doctor who treats children. At the end of last year, Dr. Chan gave birth to their first child: a baby daughter. On the day she was born, Mr. Zuck-erberg and his wife posted an “open letter” on his Facebook page. It was addressed to their daughter. They said that they hoped she would have a happy life. In the letter, the couple pledged, or promised, to give away 99% of their wealth. This would be done during their lifetimes. The money is to be used to make the world a better place for their daugh-ter and all other children.

Wealthy people who give away money for good causes are known as philanthropists. Bill Gates was a co-founder of the Microsoft Company. Currently, he is the richest person in the world. Sixteen years ago, Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, set up a charitable organization or foundation.

Called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it gives large amounts of money to help find cures for diseases. Malaria and HIV/AIDS are examples. The foundation also helps to reduce poverty and provide computer-related education in poorer countries.

Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan set up a company called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). On September 21, they announced that they were putting $3 billion into the company. This, the Zuck-erbergs said, was to be spent on medical research. The research, they added, was to “cure, prevent or manage all disease by the end of this century”. At first, some of the money is to be used to set up a “Biohub”. This will help some of the best medical scientists from two universities in California to work together. Their research and results can be shared with scien-tists in other parts of the world.

One of the Biohub’s first pro-jects is called “The Human Cell Atlas”. It will map every type of cell (and what it does) in the hu-man body. This is a big project. However, when complete, it is expected to lead to new ways of curing certain diseases. Another project is to find new ways to de-sign, test and make some drugs and vaccines that are already used. Currently, a new drug can take ten years to produce and cost $1 bil-lion. This includes all the research and testing. The Biohub will try to find ways of making this shorter and less expensive.

Four types of disease cause most deaths in the world. These are: heart disease, cancer, neurological diseas-es and infectious diseases. Heart dis-ease is the greatest cause of death in the world. If detected early enough, heart disease can be treated. There are many types of cancer. Scientists now understand what causes cancer. Yet they have not managed to work out how to cure it. Neurological disorders affect the nervous system and brain. Not much is known about these diseases. They include: multi-ple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Many infectious diseases can now be cured. Living things such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and worms cause them. Not all scientists think that viruses are alive. They cannot reproduce by themselves. Many sci-entists say that viruses are “between living and non-living”. Recently, a deadly virus called Ebola killed many people in West Africa. Within 12 months, scientists managed to create a vaccine that controlled or prevented Ebola.

Most medical experts agree that $3 billion is unlikely to cure all dis-eases. The Zuckerbergs hope that their actions will encourage other wealthy people to donate money. Mr. Gates was in the audience when the Zuckerbergs made their announcement. He applauded their plan and said that “it would save millions of lives and make the world a better place”.