One of my goals as surgeon general is to eliminate health disparities in the United States. Yet, it is essential that we also play a role in eliminating global health disparities; that is, inequalities in health status, disease distribution, and access to services. The World Health Report 2000--available at http://www.who.int/whr/2000/-- notes that health should be good (the best it can be) and fair (equitably distributed). When health and health services are unfairly distributed, regardless of how good they are, we still face disparities.