Efforts to eradicate polio by 2018 must ensure that people with disabilities are included in elimination strategies, says Sue Coe.

Funding for programmes that target major diseases should be matched by investment in the health systems that underpin them, says Ghana's Irene Akua Agyepong.

The murder of health workers in Pakistan means the last leg of efforts to eradicate the disease can't be business as usual, says Heidi Larson.

Social attitudes towards vaccines are hard to cram into a mathematical model, but scientists need to take them into account, says Priya Shetty.

The latest round of challenges to India's drug patent laws is a fight that must be won for the world's poor, says Priya Shetty.

Integrating human rights thinking into policies for combating HIV/AIDS is essential, says Navi Pillay.

Neglected tropical diseases are a hidden factor of cardiovascular diseases in developing countries, say Yasmin Moolani and colleagues.

Neighbouring countries need incentives to coordinate disease control, say health policy experts Ramanan Laxminarayan and colleagues.

A binding international convention would facilitate a move towards more equitable access to R&D in health, according to Suerie Moon and colleagues.

An editorial in the journal Nature explains the reasons for publishing the full results of a controversial paper about a modified bird flu virus

Emerging resistance to artemisinin means efforts to track genetic markers and regulate the drug's use must step up, says Priya Shetty.

Trade deals are threatening generic drugs — we need new ways to incentivise affordable drug development, says health expert Daniele Dionisio.

India urgently needs a permanent dengue surveillance system, say N. Sivagnaname and colleagues.

There is a pressing need for Africa to bolster its pharmaceuticals industry, and that requires the right policy framework, argues Priya Shetty.

Improving health for the poor depends on nurturing local innovations — and learning how to deliver them, argue Abdallah Daar and Peter Singer.

Africa needs to up its game in malaria research, but by doing what it does best, not by replicating Western research, says Linda Nordling.

The revised malaria death toll suggests a need for research into uncertainties in controlling neglected tropical diseases, says Mark Booth.

India's carefully targeted strategy against polio holds lessons for other countries, and for other diseases, argues Priya Shetty.

Encouraging demand for new and increasingly cheap interventions available now can boost health in developing countries, says Charles Kenny.