Author: Dr Shekhar C Mande

Economic progress of coun­tries is usually reflected in the average health of the people of that country. History has shown that as countries become more affluent, life expectancy of people in those countries typically goes up. A critical factor in increased life ex­pectancy in the past has been containing exposure of the population to multiple infectious diseases, and avoiding perish­ing to some of the deadlier ones, thereby affecting life expectancy significantly. It is therefore no surprise that with eco­nomic progress, the burden of commu­nicable (infectious) diseases also reduces. In high-income countries, diseases such as plague, tuberculosis, smallpox and influenza, which…