A coalition of governments, drug companies, and charities on Monday pledged to invest a record $785 million to developing treatments for 10 tropical diseases. The initiative aims to cure the illnesses, which include sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and leprosy, within the next decade. The United Sates, United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have contributed. James Kazura, president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, called it “the largest collaborative effort ever to attack an unacceptable infectious disease burden affecting the world’s poor.”
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