Exogenous Damage Model

The model is generic and is not tied to a specific pathogen or disease-specific biological mechanism. The central hypothesis is that acute exogenous damage can create secondary damage during aging that persists after the initial damage is repaired. Disease or exogenous damage was simulated by damaging a fraction of health-network nodes at a specified onset age for a specified duration. The study models acute diseases and other short-lived exogenous damage events as causes of mortality changes across the human lifespan.