The USA has a shortage of anti-malaria drugs and the solution to the shortage may come from an unlikely source — Bill Gates. Because malaria isn’t endemic in North America as I wrote on twitter (@drmikeny) earlier today. News agencies have reported countries have banned the export of these drugs which may improve outcomes in Malaria Gao et al. 2020.
Anti-malarial drugs that might help treat COVID-19 include Chloroquine & Hydroxychloroquine.
Countries that experience higher incidences of Malaria are more likely to have supplies of these drugs.
They may also have a surplus of Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine for the USA effort to slow spread of Coronavirus, if they are not seeing a large amount of COVID-19 yet.
This is largely due to great work of Bill and Melinda Gates and the Gates Foundation to help reduce the incidence of Malaria. And if there ever was a time to notice how achieving something like this in remote areas of the world like Africa could come back to potentially realize direct health benefits in the USA It is now! These countries may have surplus of medications for malaria. As Malaria has decreased over time, their stockpiles of medications have likely increased. They also have established supply chains for Anti-Malaria drugs.
The Gates Foundation has a major role to play to help us secure medications. I suspect they may already be helping but if they are not, they can help the United States government acquire medications needed for the treatment of patients with Coronavirus. Big Pharma can also help with supply chain logistics in coordination with Gates Foundation. Government might look towards freeing resources to pay generic drug makers to ramp up manufacturing and guarantees to buy excess supply for future stockpiles should we have the need again in the future. I pray we won’t have this need but fear we will.
How will I get the attention of these individuals? I probably won’t. But how could I? How about a cool rap/nice rhyme? X-Y = Country with Supply? Countries with decreased incidence of COVID-19 and a low incidence of malaria are more likely to have extra supply. You can also overlay the maps of COVID-19 and Malaria to find the regions. But we will need the above measures to be taken for real action that means collaboration between Gates Foundation, private industry and the United States government.
