Microsoft founder Bill Gates expects an AIDS vaccine will be developed while he's around to see it, he told CBC News in an interview Friday.
"In my lifetime, I would be very surprised if we don't have a vaccine for AIDS," he told the CBC's Peter Mansbridge in an exclusive interview in Redmond, Wash.
Gates, 51, has been heavily involved in the fight against the disease. He and his wife, Melinda, started a foundation that has donated more than $500 million US to combating AIDS, as well as tuberculosis and malaria.
Gates said there has already been significant progress to eliminate diseases like polio and to develop drugs against illnesses like malaria. He acknowledged that AIDS has proven the toughest to fight, but that doesn't mean solutions won't be coming.
He said in order to develop an AIDS vaccine and to win the battle against the disease, governments need to get involved. They need to give money to supplement the donations made by individuals and organizations, he said.
He told the CBC that the governments of Canada and the United States are beginning to contribute, but that aid needs to continue, and it needs to grow.
An estimated 65 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with AIDS since the disease was first identified in 1981. The United Nations believes 2.9 million people died from the disease in 2006 alone.
Gates's interview will air this weekend on the CBC program Mansbridge One on One. The program can be viewed on Newsworld on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. ET, and on Sunday at 12:30 a.m. ET., 5:30 a.m. ET and 3:30 p.m. ET.
