"Infectious diseases remain key agents of the debilitating poverty afflicting so much of the world today. Each year these diseases kill almost 9 million people, many of them children under five, and they also cause enormous burdens through life-long disability. Stepping up research into their causes and how to effectively treat them and prevent them from spreading could have an enormous impact on efforts to lift people out of poverty and to build a better world for future generations. ... [This report] offers new ways of improving public health in low and middle income countries, with research as the compelling foundation and driver for policies."--Page 9.