The Bulletin of the World Health Organization is an international journal of public health with a special focus on developing countries. Since it was first published in 1948 the Bulletin has become one of the world's leading public health journals. As the flagship periodical of the World Health Organization (WHO) the Bulletin draws on WHO experts as editorial advisers reviewers and authors as well as on external collaborators. In this month's issue: No universal health coverage without strong local health systems; Health and safety in recreational waters; Economic benefits of keeping vaccines at ambient temperature during mass vaccination: the case of meningitis A vaccine in Chad; global research agenda for family planning: results of an exercise for setting research priorities; The influence of market deregulation on fast food consumption and body mass index: a cross-national time series analysis; Do national drug control laws ensure the availability of opioids for medical and scientific purposes?; Diarrhoea-related hospitalizations in children before and after implementation of monovalent rotavirus vaccination in Mexico; Pre-treatment loss to follow-up in tuberculosis patients in low- and lower-middle-income countries and high-burden countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis; Protecting policy space for public health nutrition in an era of international investment agreements; Adaptation and implementation of local maternity dashboards in a Zimbabwean hospital to drive clinical improvement.