The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced three grants totaling $258.3 million for advanced development of a malaria vaccine, new drugs, and innovative mosquito control methods to help defeat malaria, a disease that kills 2,000 African children every day.

"For far too long, malaria has been a forgotten epidemic," said Bill Gates, co-founder of the Gates Foundation. "It's a disgrace that the world has allowed malaria deaths to double in the last 20 years, when so much more could be done to stop the disease."

"Millions of children have died from malaria because they were not protected by an insecticide-treated bed net, or did not receive effective treatment," said Gates. "If we expand malaria control programs, and invest what's needed in R&D, we can stop this tragedy."

Efforts to develop better malaria control tools have gained new urgency as drug resistance has rendered the cheapest and most widely-used antimalarial drugs useless in many parts of Africa. New combination treatments for malaria are very effective, but have remained out of reach for millions of Africans due to supply shortages and their relatively high cost.

A malaria infection starts about 9 to 14 days after being bitten and usually causes a high fever, headache, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms, according to the WHO. If left untreated (and it usually is), it destroys red blood cells and can clog the arteries that carry blood to the brain. It is particularly lethal among children.