Imperial College has announced a grant of $30 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI). The SCI will be a partnership hosted at Imperial, and will include the World Health Organisation and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Schistosomiasis is a worm parasite which affects over 200 million people in the tropics, where water supply and sanitation are inadequate or non-existent. About 600 million people are at risk of contracting the disease which leads to chronic ill-health.

The aims of the SCI are to develop local partnerships in African nations to improve medical training and the delivery of training. Dr Alan Fenwick, the Director of the Initiative commented, "There is a treatment, Praziquantel, which is safe, effective, and reasonably priced. The challenge now is to deliver this treatment to places like sub-Saharan Africa where the drug has never been available."

Sir Richard Sykes, Rector of Imperial College, and former Chief Executive of pharmaceutical giant, GlakoSmithKline welcomed the grant. He described the SCI as "a very exciting opportunity ... to play a part in attempting to alleviate the enormous burden of suffering and deth caused by infectious disease in Africa."