Deadly diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV that afflict the world's poorest the most can be eradicated, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said, but he worries austerity measures could clip some public funding.
"The money that helps out the poorest overwhelmingly comes from government aid budgets" but it's unclear what kind of priority aid will have in future budgets, Gates told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Friday from Davos, Switzerland.
The U.S., for instance, gives $6 billion in aid to fight AIDS, and if that were to be cut, it's hard to make up that funding from private philanthropists, Gates said.
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Gates remains a part-time chairman of Microsoft but his full-time gig is with his charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Until we treat the health of that poor child as being as important as the health of a rich child, we'll still have work to do," Gates said of his foundation's work on global health. "That gives us decade after decade of needing to make progress."