Notwithstanding the differences between the health transitions of European countries and those experienced by developing countries, there is no doubt that approaches to the health challenges in the poorest regions of the world can be greatly informed by the European historical experience.

Within a more general reflection about the health transition process in Mediterranean Europe, a specific focus of our paper will be dedicated to poverty related diseases, whose control and eradication has been already achieved in Europe, but which still play a significant role in the poorest countries.

Among these diseases we will focus on tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, trachoma, etc. (designated by WHO as Neglected Tropical Diseases), diseases of early infancy, and maternal and perinatal illnesses.

The Spanish and Italian historical experience of poverty related diseases represents an important lesson for the present and shows that nowadays, as well in the past, to eradicate those pathologies it is not enough to act on the most immediate factors, using therapeutic remedies or assistance measures. Rather, it is necessary to improve sanitary conditions and change a complex of factors that explain the prevalence of those diseases, through a horizontal and prophylactic action, assigning a key role to health education.