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Health transition has been one of the most important features of demographic changes in the twentieth century. It is a complex process comprising demographic, epidemiological, and health care transitions that manifested in rising life expectancy at birth due to changes in the fertility, mortality, and morbidity profile of a population. The five-stage epidemiological transition cycle (epidemics and famines, epidemics, chronic diseases, emerging and emerging diseases). The population history of the continent of Africa indicates that the continent has undergone changes in health aspects because of the political, economic and social conditions it has experienced. The continent has been plagued by many epidemics since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century (Sleep Sickness, Cholera, Plague. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the only major area in the world where the burden of infectious disease still outweighs the burden of noncommunicable disease and injuries. While the rates of decline in fertility and mortality vary considerably across the region, at least one clear pattern is emerging that holds across all of sub-Saharan Africa: a steady rise in noncommunicable disease (including cardio-metabolic and respiratory conditions as well as cancers) in the presence of significant, long-standing infectious disease prevalence. This model is strongly aligned with current discussions on Africa’s "double burden of disease" which recognize the coexistence of communicable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, and chronic noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension, stroke, and diabetes. At present, Ecological factors caused by alterations to the environment precipitate the spread of communicable diseases by interspersing a susceptible human population in proximity with a natural reservoir or host to which they often have had no previous exposure or immunity. Vector and host populations can also exist in equilibrium until a climate or environmental change causes an equilibrium shift resulting in emergence and spread of disease, Ex. (Ebola virus, H5N1 influenza, Coronavirus).
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