Bill Gates spoke with Devex at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting about the science and technology behind the push to eradicate malaria parasites — one of Gates’ favorite subjects and one which he has elevated at this meeting two years in a row.

Gates is not interested in a silver bullet, a single tool. “Malaria is a very complex disease and understanding the etiology and the resistance, and do you do a mass test and treat, do you do MDA [mass drug administration],” he begins. He basks in the complexity of the disease itself — how the various species of plasmodia morph and change and evade easy elimination — and the multifaceted way it must be fought. “Basically we’re trying to get rid of the human reservoir,” he says, before launching into an extended analysis of why that’s no small feat.

If Gates gets his way, and malaria is ultimately eradicated by his planning target of 2040, he will be 85 years old. That the fight could take Gates’ entire lifetime is a marker for just how tough this so-called “zero goal” will be to reach.

But scaling up today’s approach, diagnosing and treating patients suffering from the symptoms of malaria, and distributing bed nets to others, isn’t going to be enough on its own to reach global eradication. “We’re going to have to invent new tools,” he says.  He’s looking to new ways to control the mosquito population, like the genetic engineering technique "gene drive" that could one day alter mosquitos so they can’t carry the malaria parasite or so that certain malaria-carrying species can’t reproduce and die off.

And even the most influential philanthropist in human history knows he can’t achieve this alone. Gates is hoping “to bring China in as a very big donor” and “Australia as a regional donor.”

Read the full article about Bill Gates fighting malaria by Raj Kumar at Devex.