The Imaginations of Unreasonable Men: Inspiration, Vision, and Purpose in the Quest to End Malaria

In his latest book Shore, founder of Share our Strength, gives a stirring account of the determined efforts to end the global malaria epidemic. His journey began on a 2002 visit to an Ethiopian school funded by his foundation, where he formed a deep bond with a young girl who would soon die of malaria. Her death brought to his attention the human cost of the pervasive spread of malaria, a disease that is difficult to fight in part because it quickly adapts resistance to drugs. He began investigating the potential for developing a vaccine, which led him to Dr. Stephen Hoffman, among others, whose relentless pursuit of a vaccine "may be not only our best hope for eradicating malaria, but also our best modern example of how imagination...can lead to breakthroughs." Hoffman has developed a system to extract parasites from the salivary gland of infected mosquitoes which, when irradiated, are injected into the veins of subjects to create immunity. Shore (The Light of Conscience) describes Hoffman's efforts as "the intersection of the man and the moment," a model of social entrepreneurship which marries private and non-profit enterprise, enabling modern philanthropy to supplant the role of lagging governments. (Nov.)