Question

Reducing the rate of infant and childhood mortality in poor countries clearly leads to a short run increase in population growth. Use the economic model of family size developed in this chapter to explain why population growth experts nevertheless advocate improved public health measures as an important component of a population control strategy.

Answer 1

Importance of public health measures for population control strategies :
Through the prevention of common diseases, basic sanitation, public health improvements not only help us to maintain overall health of people, but that in turn is responsible in triggering socio-economic development around the world. Imagine a country struck with a bad influenza virus or the cholera virus just because, it doesn not put emphasis on mandatory vaccination drives; There would be national health emergencies and an epidemic would be a bad scenario for the economic development of the country. That being said, health officials would not want a patient who is not healthy to prolong his blood line with bad genes. It will hamper the next generations of people in that country and the cycle would be neverending. And higher population growth in such a scenario would cause disastrous effects on public services such as public health infrastructure. The nation will eventually fail to accomodate patients due to overpopulation and health problems. Therefore, health measures are an absolute necessity while dealing with population control.