EMERGING AND REEMERGING INFECTIOUS-DISEASES - THE 3RD EPIDEMIOLOGIC TRANSITION

We use an expanded framework of multiple epidemiologic transitions to review the issues of re/emerging infection. The first epidemiologic tr ansition was associated with a rise in infectious diseases that accomp anied the Neolithic Revolution. The second epidemiologic transition in volved the shift from infectious to chronic disease mortality associat ed with industrialization. The recent resurgence of infectious disease mortality marks a third epidemiologic transition characterized by new ly emerging, re-emerging, and antibiotic resistant pathogens in the co ntext of an accelerated globalization of human disease ecologies. Thes e transitions illustrate recurring sociohistorical and ecological them es in human-disease relationships from the Paleolithic Age to the pres ent day.