Malaria, a disease caused by a parasite and transmitted by mosquitoes, represents a threat to almost 40% of the world´s population. The majority of cases and deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where one child under 5 years of age dies every 30 seconds. As a result of the first World Malaria Day, held on 25th April 2008, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, announced the launching of new drive to reinforce the goal of eradicating the disease from the African continent by the end of 2010. Among the tools to achieve this goal, he emphasised the importance of training medical staff in affected countries and encouraging research.

Among others, the strategic goals of the four award-winning institutions include biomedical research, the training of local personnel, medical care and institutional backing as tools to put an end to the relation between disease and poverty, thus contributing to the development of national and international public health.

The Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre (IHRDC), in Tanzania, has been operating since 1956 as the first biomedical research centre in the field set up by the Swiss Tropical Institute, founded by Rudolf Geigy. The conditions in Ifakara, a rural settlement with a major incidence of tropical diseases, were decisive in the centre becoming permanent and it becoming involved in the national research and health systems. In 1990, the IHRDC became affiliated to the Tanzania National Institute for Medical Research, operating since 1997 as an independent, non-profit foundation. IHRDC's significant achievements in recent years include the results of the intermittent preventative treatment in infants (IPTi) of malaria. These showed that the antimalarial drug SP administered during immunisation led to a reduction in clinical episodes of 60%, in severe anaemia of 50% and in hospitalizations of 30%. In addition, a consortium of researchers has been formed, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to assess these results in other countries such as Kenya, Mozambique, Gabon, Senegal, Ghana and Tanzania. The IHRDC, which is currently directed by Dr. Hassan Mshinda, is soon to change its name to the Ifakara Health Institute.