Chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes are now so common in poor countries that they threaten the Millennium Development Goals for achieving significant progress on infectious diseases, and on child and maternal mortality by 2015. According to a report by scientists from London, Oxford and San Francisco, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, non–communicable diseases — common in rich countries — are now also taking their toll in poor countries, and — along with HIV — undermining the goals. Co-author, Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, discusses the findings.