Social Determinants of Health: Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development

October 2007 is the witness to an undertaking by more than 200 journal editors around the world. Organized by the Council of Science Editors (CSE), these journals are publishing a Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. As CSE has announced, the purpose of this universal theme issue is “to raise awareness, stimulate interest, and stimulate research into poverty and human development”.1 Archives of Iranian Medicine (AIM) was among the journals, which joined this collaboration and has devoted part of its current issue to the theme. As implied by name of the Journal and expressed in its aims and scope it is a “peer-reviewed multidisciplinary medical publication”.2 Thus, the articles selected for this theme issue address health and medical carerelated aspects of human development.