To cite: PeacockChambers E, Silverstein M. Arch Dis Child 2015;100 (Suppl 1):s74–s75. In the past 15 years, North America made significant advances towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets despite a crippling and global financial crisis beginning in 2008. The three countries making up North America—Canada, the USA and Mexico—aspired to reach MDGs under strikingly different politica...

In September 2000, 189 nations committed to working towards measurable targets to reduce poverty and achieve the basic needs and rights of all. However, the UN’s 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report recognised that most of the eight MDGs are not on track to be achieved by the proposed 2015 deadline. Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, stated that ‘improvements in the lives of the poor ...

• methods for strengthening routine TB surveillance; • ways to improve and standardize the analysis of surveillance data; • where surveys of infection and active disease have already been done, and should be done in future; • the comparative merits of surveys of infection and active disease (with reference to surveillance data); • how to set standards for carrying out prevalence surveys (of bot...

Malaria, as a key disease of poverty, was singled out for special attention in the Millennium Project of 2000. Recent data suggest that malaria incidence and mortality are now declining all over the world. While these figures are cause for celebration, they must be interpreted carefully and with caution, particularly in relation to Africa. There are daunting challenges ahead for those working t...