WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bill Gates on Friday challenged the U.S. presidential candidates to expand the U.S. commitment to erasing malaria from the face of the world, echoing the message that tens of thousands of Americans have been making through the ONE Vote ’08 campaign.

“We know that eradicating malaria is an audacious goal.  But advances in science and medicine, new political commitments, and the dedication of people like you have given the world an historic opportunity to conquer malaria.  It won’t be easy and it won’t happen quickly, but I’m optimistic that we can make this disease history,” Gates said on Friday.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this week hosted a three-day conference in Seattle, bringing together leading malaria scientists and policymakers from around the world.  That conference sparked Gates to take the unprecedented step of talking about the challenge of malaria on the ONE Campaign blog (ONE.org/blog). ONE also hosted a live blog with Malaria No More throughout the three-day Seattle event.

“Melinda and I issued a challenge to those attending the meeting.  We asked them to begin charting a course to eradicate malaria — not just to control or reduce it, but to work toward a time when no one on earth is infected with malaria, and no mosquitoes carry the disease,” Gates explained.

On Friday, Gates took the challenge one step further, urging the presidential candidates to commit to expand the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).  The PMI is a five-year, $1.2 billion initiative to fight malaria in 15 focus countries in Africa.  In 2006, its first year of operation, PMI reached 6 million people with prevention and treatment services.  PMI is on course to reach 30 million by the end of 2007 and the initiative is expected to reach 60 million more people in 2008.

“I hope you will join us in asking all of the candidates to make this pledge and keep the fight against malaria on the national agenda,” Gates told ONE members on the blog.  “I am confident that together, we can produce the energy, compassion, and commitment needed to win the fight against malaria.”

The ONE Campaign earlier this summer launched ONE Vote ’08 — an unprecedented, bipartisan initiative to build a stronger, more secure world by energizing presidential candidates to make the fight against global poverty and preventable disease a key foreign policy issue in the 2008 presidential election.  With tens of thousands of volunteers on the ground in the key early primary states, ONE Vote is working to educate the candidates about these issues and their importance to American voters.

Already, ONE Vote volunteers have met with presidential candidates more than 300 times.  Many of the candidates’ speeches geared toward the issues of ending extreme poverty and global disease have been sparked through the outreach of ONE and its partner organizations.