The Epidemiological Transition from Acute to Chronic, Health Inequalities in India

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Maciocco G., La Salute Globale, Carocci Faber, San- tomauro

Song Y., Huang Y., Song Y. et al. (2015), Birthweight, mediating biomarkers and the development of type 2 diabetes tional and conceptual model. And healthcare structure to in- tercept people who might not know they are ill. Today the coronavirus pandemic forces us to admit that everywhere the territorial dimension has been neglected. The much discussed triad applicable to infectious diseases – test, trace, treat – can only work with a function- ing territory: for example, the same network that tracks and follows diabetics can be used in cases of infectious emergen- cies. It requires organizational creativity outside hospitals. We have seen strong healthcare systems collapse, for instance in Italy, Spain, England and especially in the United States, where the focus was on the large hospital network, because that is where the ill went for help. It would have been nec- essary to reinforce the system and implement prevention at a territorial level, to isolate new infections and flatten the curve which overwhelmed hos- pitals, and caused situations we thought were unthinkable – trucks carrying corpses in Bergamo, Italy, and refrigera- tor cells being used for bodies in New York. Territories and medicine for chronicity are intertwined with acuity, espe- cially with infectious diseases, and it is wrong to focus on the various specialised branches in- side public hospitals or private clinics of excellence. We now see that the lesson of chronici- ty also applies to an acute con- text, it is an opportunity for improvement. later in life: a prospective study of multi-ethnic women, in «Diabetologia», 58, pp. 1220-1230

Lumagbas L.B. et al. (2018), Non-communicable diseases in Indian slums: re-framing the Social Deter- minants of Health, in «Glob Health Action», 11(1), 2018, 1438840. Published online 2018 Mar 28

Jeremy Ang

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