ABSTRACT
An outline of chronic disease has been emerging through Chapter 1. Time, now, to examine the chronic disease story in more detail. I call this a story because chronic disease lends itself more to imagery than scientifi c discourse, and this chapter will follow that approach. It is personifi ed as a predatory genus that occupies the same eco-space as Homo sapiens. Th e characteristics of this genus, as with any virulent organism, manifest an epidemiological profi le – that is, it has a natural history, course, impact, and social and environmental determinants that constitute its habitat. From this can be deduced possible avenues for countermeasures, aimed at
controlling it, since it seems impossible to eradicate it. Th is leads into a summary of epidemiology, which will be complemented by a review of sociology in the following chapter. Both of these merit attention as fundamental health sciences, although perhaps dimly remembered from student days, if at all.
