Boy Scouts prepared to join fight against malaria

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DETROIT -- The Boys Scouts are prepared to join the fight against malaria.

The Boy Scouts of America are teaming up with the United Nation Foundation's Nothing but Nets campaign to promote malaria awareness and education. Organizers say up to 3 million scouts could get involved.

Participating scouts and scouting alums can work toward a special patch commemorating the Irving, Texas-based organization's 100th anniversary next year.

An announcement is planned Thursday in Detroit. Attendees will include Bill Gates Sr., father of the Microsoft Corp. founder and co-chairman of the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which fights malaria and other global health problems.

Each year more than a million people, mostly children, die of malaria worldwide.