Sir Richard Branson: Up to Good Again

Just when we thought we'd seen it all from Sir Richard Branson, he delights us with yet another brilliant idea. The founder of mega-brand Virgin is proposing a public health agency for Africa. With the help of South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, the British billionaire plans to bring the benefits of modern health care to a continent plagued by treatable disease.

According to the Financial Times, Sir Richard describes the one-day operation as a "disease control hub." Much like the CDC, the organization will coordinate research and information on epidemic disease, as well as enhance the government’s ability to respond more effectively to health emergencies.

Currently, Africa is largely deprived of many of the basic modern medical advances enjoyed by the rest of the world.

“[This] is a critical initiative to help stop needless suffering from diseases such as tuberculosis, Aids and other health conditions that have needlessly killed large numbers of people and hampered the growth of this incredible country,” said Sir Richard to the Financial Times.

With plans for a March 2010 launch, the initiative also promises to bring together so many of the various organization around the world that are working toward the same goal: to end the unnecessary suffering of the people of Africa.

If Branson's track record is any indication, we can likely expect to see this plan eventually come to fruition. But there's just one problem: How does one properly recognize a man who has already been knighted and named the U.N.'s Citizen of the World? It might be Nobel Prize time.

Photo courtesy of Richard Burdett, via Commons Wikimedia.