Is Bangladesh Going Through an Epidemiological and Nutritional Transition?

Bangladesh is going through an epidemiological transition with large reductions in mortality due to acute, infectious, and parasitic diseases and increases in non-communicable, degenerative, and chronic diseases over the last 20 years. There is also evidence of an adult nutritional transition with increases in pre-obesity and obesity particularly in urban areas. However a high percentage of the population of Bangladesh remain undernourished and economically poor and ultra-poor development programmes indicate that improving their nutritional status might not be achievable as a bi-product of the development programme. Bangladesh like many developing countries has many burdens of under and over-nutrition, high levels of infectious diseases as well as growing levels of non-communicable diseases.