The International Nurses Day has again put the spotlight on the lack of adequate care for - mostly older - persons in need of care, even in high-income countries. In middle-income countries, however, the existence of adequate long-term care is even more an illusion, as Markus Kraus and Monika Riedel show in their latest publication "Three dimensions of long-term care provision in middle-income countries—A view across Africa, Latin America and Asia".