Living in the Covid-19 pandemic age has given me extra knowledge on some of these infectious disease terms or epidemiology — even though they might sound slightly similar and you could get confused by them once in a while — but each term is fluid and can change depending on when the diseases become more or less widespread after a certain period.
Some of the most common infectious disease terms are pandemic, epidemic, endemic and outbreak.
Pandemic
We have been hearing this word for the past two years now and I’m sure most of us already know what it means. But in case you didn’t know, a Pandemic is defined as a disease that is prevalent over a whole country or even the world. The initial outbreak would see the disease spreading in one area, which quickly spread to a country and followed by continents.
A pandemic is basically a global epidemic but it affects more people and takes more lives than an epidemic. However, this is not to be confused with widespread endemic disease, even if it affects a substantial number of infected individuals. The difference between a pandemic and an endemic is in the steady numbers of infected individuals.
Examples of a pandemic other than the recent Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) are tuberculosis, Russian flu, Spanish flu, cholera, Hong Kong flu, the Black Death (or known as The Plague) and more. HIV/AIDS began as a pandemic in 1981 and has now been categorised as an epidemic by WHO (World Health Organisation) since it is still an ongoing public health issue.
Epidemic
In the Oxford dictionary, you would find that an Epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time. In a broader sense, the word epidemic is used to describe an active spread of disease that substantially exceeded what was expected but in a localised region or country.
For example, when Covid-19 was at its early stages and only found in Wuhan, China, it was called an epidemic. When it started spreading to other areas and other countries, it turned into a pandemic. So to cut it short, just remember that the “P” in Pandemic is a “passport” where the epidemic disease travels.
Other examples of endemic diseases are the Plague of Athens (430 B.C.), the Plague of Cyprian (250-271 A.D.), Cocoliztli Epidemic (1545-1548), Diphtheria (1921-1925) smallpox, yellow fever, Typhoid Mary and more.
Endemic
In epidemiology, an endemic is said to be a disease or infection that is natural to/ native to/ confined to or within a certain place or certain population of people. The infection at this place or population should be constantly maintained at a baseline level without external inputs. Endemic diseases do not always have to be at a high level and can be relatively rare.
Right now, many experts said that Covid-19 is expected to become an endemic disease however when that would be is still questionable. The inconsistent number of infections and deaths either localised or globally will make it hard for WHO or countries to dub Covid-19 as an endemic in this short future. Until the disease spread and rates become predictable, it would be in the further future before Covid-19 can be categorised as an endemic.
However, let’s see some examples of an endemic disease in the world.
- Influenza
- Malaria
- Hepatitis B
- Syphilis
- African Sleeping Sickness
- Chagas Disease
Outbreak
Generally, an outbreak means a “sudden occurrence” but in epidemiology, it means a sudden increase in the disease frequency, related to time, place, and observed population. An outbreak can last a few days, weeks or even years.
So how do we determine an outbreak? If a larger number of people than expected have the same illness at the same time and area, that is called a cluster. But then if the ill people in that cluster is proven to have something in common that lead to the illness, that is called an outbreak. In the modern world, we can see that humans, animals and environmental health are all linked and things like urbanization, industrialised food production and water contamination can cause an outbreak.
Aliza M. is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
Register at headliner.newswav.com to become one of our content writers now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.