British Medical Journal
18 February 2012 (Vol 344, Issue 7844)
http://www.bmj.com/content/current

Editorial
Improving the delivery of safe and effective healthcare in low and middle income countries
BMJ 2012; 344 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e981 (Published 14 February 2012)
Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e981

Extract
Research is needed into creating workable systems that can deliver and sustain interventions

Many resource constrained countries are unlikely to attain their millennium development goal targets by 2015,1 despite major global efforts and much progress (figure⇓).2 3 For example, only 23 countries are currently estimated to be on track to achieve the target of a 75% reduction in maternal mortality.4 In addition, the rate of new HIV infections continues to outpace the number of HIV positive patients who start treatment—for every five people newly infected with HIV only two begin treatment each year, and about 5.5 million people needing treatment for HIV in low and middle income countries still do not receive it.5 6