Limits of Modern Epidemiological Models: What are the Alternatives?

Modern epidemiology has, by and large, been based on a narrow model of biomedicine and behaviour modification. It fails to answer, for instance the following questions: Why certain populations are inflicted with certain kinds of disease, and why the access to its cure and prevention is so skewed. The model of social capital that emerged subsequently too fails to address these issues adequately and furthermore suggests that it is possible for a community to escape disease solely through its own initiative. A most recent development that holds a different promise is in the realm of the theory of social capital that is being hailed in influential public health circles as a resurgence of holism. The most significant contribution of this model is that it provides a sociological explanation for health inequalities.