Inequalities in health refer to a broad range of differences in health experience and health status between countries, regions, and social groups. Health inequities are avoidable inequalities that are unfair and unjust.1 The UK government has launched a national drive to improve social justice,2 and now tackling health inequalities has become a key health theme for the UK presidency of the European Union. To explore the scope for action on social and economic determinants of health the presidency is bringing together European and international experts at the “Tackling Health Inequalities: Governing for Health” summit in London this week.

Earlier this month, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced its decision to award the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for 2005 to Barry J Marshall and J Robin Warren for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which is associated with chronic disease of the upper gastrointestinal tract. …