A donation of $ 500,000 to establish a malaria diagnostic laboratory for the HopeXchange Medical Center at its health facility in Kumasi, Ghana, was announced by the ExxonMobil Foundation. It will provide HopeXchange, an institution dedicated to malaria prevention and treatment, with resources to improve malaria diagnosis. The center will also serve as a site for clinical trials of anti-malarial drugs using internationally recognized best clinical practices.

An estimated 800,000 people die every year from malaria, most of them children under the age of 5. The disease accounts for about 40 % of sub-Saharan Africa’s health expenditures and costs an estimated $12 billion in lost productivity annually.

Since 2000, ExxonMobil has committed more than $100 million for programs to fight malaria, supporting a wide range of prevention, treatment and advocacy programs to end deaths from this disease.

• HopeXchange Medical Center, Kumasi, Ghana
• ExxonMobil, USA