Epidemic and Pandemic?

 

Q) What is the difference between epidemic and pandemic?

OR

Describe the terms outbreak, epidemic, endemic and pandemic.

Ans)

In this article we will try to understand the meaning of outbreak, endemic, epidemic and pandemic.

Endemic - lf an infectious disease is  regularly  present in a community or a people for long time then it is called endemic.

In some parts of Africa malaria is endemic. Dengue is endemic to many Caribbean nations.

Disease is restricted to  a region or country. And number of cases does not go beyond a threshold.

Outbreak  - If there are greater than anticipated increase in the number of endemic cases, it is called outbreak.

If a infectious disease spread to some new area then it is an outbreak even if only one case is there.

Epidemic - It affects a large number of people within a community, population or region. Here the rate of increase in cases is rapid.

 In the case of COVID-19, it was epidemic until disease was restricted to the city Wuhan in China.

Pandemic - If an epidemic spread over multiple countries or continents then it is called pandemic.

 For example COVID-19. WHO declared it a pandemic on 11^th March 2020.

(Note - One should always remember that epidemics and pandemics are defined on the basis of rate  and distance of spread and not on the severity of the disease.)