Health investment benefits economic development

Economic development is good for health, but good health also fosters economic growth. WHO's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health has argued persuasively that policymakers would gain more from scarce resources if they invested in both economies and health, ideally launching a virtuous circle of growth and human development.1 The Commission has focused on the urgent public-health crises facing sub-Saharan Africa, a region ravaged by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, and undoubtedly a legitimate focus for global aid efforts. Do the Commission's conclusions have relevance for other low-income and middle-income regions, such as eastern Europe and central Asia, also burdened by poverty and ill health? (...)