ABSTRACT
Korea dramatically changed after World War II, the Korean War (1950–1953) and the political division of the country into the Republic of Korea in the south and the Democratic People’s Republic in the north. 1 Change affected every domain of Korean society and this was reflected in the patterns of diseases. The control of acute communicable diseases (CDs) such as cholera, typhoid fever and Japanese encephalitis were urgent problems of public health in the following decades. With rapid economic development in the 1970s, the incidence of CDs began to decline (in particular controlling parasitic diseases was remarkably successful) and as life expectancy increased, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes became the new health problems. However, chronic infectious diseases such as tuberculosis still remain one of the major health problems in Korea. Malaria re- emerged after an absence of 20 years and Korea faces newly emerging, globalized, infectious diseases such as avian and swine flu. This chapter will discuss the shift of disease patterns during the past 60 years focusing on tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, cancer and diabetes. Although each disease has its own record, they are related at a deeper level reflecting the underlying changes which characterize the dynamics of Korean society. Given that a disease, its incidence and control is not determined by biological factors alone, but by social, economic, cultural and environmental factors as well, its health burden should be analyzed from multiple perspectives.
