The epidemiological transition, also referred to as the health and mortality transition in our text book, is the change from deaths occurring at young ages because of communicable diseases (or infectious diseases) to deaths occurring at old ages because of degenerative diseases (or noninfectious, chronic illnesses). The epidemiological transition is concurrent with the decline in mortality, which out text book states "is brought about by changes in society that improve the health of people and thus their ability to resist disease, and by scientific advances that prevent premature death" (Weeks 2005:98-99). This pattern suggests that overpopulation is not necessarily due to increased fertility, but is due to declining mortality. Modernization and industrialization played a useful role in these factors.
[...] This could be symptomatic of why Africa's epidemiological transition has not followed with the epidemiological transition that the developed west has followed. Even within a modernized country, there are certain determinants that could cause one country's epidemiological transition to differ from another's, aside from those points mentioned that prevent a transition from occurring at all. Other factors that could hinder the completion of epidemiological transitions or alter from that which another country has followed, even at the economically advanced levels, are a person's occupation and social status, whether one lives in a city or a rural area, income and education. [...]
[...] Various countries in Europe have been an accurate example of epidemiological transition, offering substantial and conclusive evidence of the transition and its effects, possibly because scientists have more detailed historical data on Europe than many other countries. Countries that do not show evidence of an epidemiological transition have a high infant mortality rate, which is one sign that communicable diseases are not yet under control, since infants are lacking strong immune systems to resist such diseases and are much more susceptible to death from illness. [...]
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