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 There is a global epidemic that every year leaves millions dead, reaching across the borders of developing countries regardless of culture, language or sex. Despite efforts by the international community to stop it, the annual death count is so high that you can only make sense of the numbers by comparing them to country population figures. This international killer is poor health. In 2006, it claimed the lives of 9.7 million children under the age of five. The vast majority of these children died from preventable and treatable causes. Of the girls and boys who have survived this modern-day epidemic, 15 million to date have felt its effects through the loss of one or both parents to AIDS. Many people around the world have a share in the responsibility for achieving the eight MDGs, but the G8, as the world’s wealthiest governments, can provide a massive boost to the effort to reach these global targets. By meeting its commitments, the G8 also acts as a powerful model for other donors and developing countries to do the same. Ultimately a country’s government must provide the resources for adequate health care, but if there is absolute shortage of resources it needs the back-up of sufficient, long-term funding commitments. A matter of life or death contains World Vision’s calls to the G8 leaders and their ministers of finance and development, at this year’s G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan, to acknowledge this urgent epidemic. They are calls for the leaders of wealthy countries – where newborn babies are not at risk of dying from pneumonia or diarrhea – to hold themselves accountable for their commitments, and to be strategic with the commitments they have made.