Takes interdisciplinary approach including statistics, Anthropology, economics, biology.
Focus shifting from infectious towards non infectious diseases. Social economic psychological cultural dimensions are important.
Factors
Exogenous. Biotic and non biotic like HIV virus, bacteria. Temperature humidity, diet.
Endogenous factors. Genetic factors bike sickle cell anaemia down syndrome
Behaviour factors. Socio-economic deforestation urbanization sanitation smoking. Plague in Surat 1994 due to congested life.
Application
Kuru disease in Papua New Guinea was due to ritual of cannibalism. Gadjusek 1966.
Campaign against soda drinks fat food and junk food to avoid diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Delhi survey 50% public school children movies.
Kalahandi epidemic of smallpox. It was believed that goddess thalerani what's causing the disease but after convincing the the priest vaccination was given. Niehoff kalahandi smallpox vaccine 1996.
Epidemic transition. Innovation medicine antibiotics, sanitation and healthcare system has displaced infectious diseases. Abdel Orman 1971.
Age of pestilence and famine. Fluctuating mortality and life expectancy between 20 to 40.
Receding pandemics. Mortality decline and life expectancy 30 to 50 years.
Degenerative and man made diseases mortality declines and stable.
McMichael et al 2004. Modernization behaviour junk food are increasing chronic diseases arthritis heart failure and degenerative diseases Alzheimer's and Parkinson.
Global burden of disease data by Murray et al 2014. Increasing trend towards non communicable diseases.