BMJ  2007;335:538-539 (15 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.39282.431100.AD

Feature

Poverty and health

Improving health through wealth

London E17 9SB

This week, the WHO's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health has set out its vision for tackling health inequity. Lynn Eaton looks at one project that has put social determinants at the top of the agenda and how the commission is working

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It's more than two years since the Make Poverty History campaign was launched, in January 2005, with the razzamatazz of pop stars, politicians, and the public flaunting their white wrist bands and calling on world leaders to tackle the root causes of poverty.

As pop star Bono, who was involved in the campaign, said at the time: "We can make extreme poverty history, I really believe that. The kind of stupid poverty where kids are dying for the lack of an immunisation that costs 20 cents, or for lack of food in a world of plenty. Don't we want to be the generation that says no to that?"

Against this groundswell in public opinion, the World Health Organization set up its Commission on the Social Determinants of Health in March 2005—albeit with a lot less fanfare. Its brief was to investigate the social factors that affect health, including unemployment, unsafe . . . [Full text of this article]

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