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What is a pandemic?
Declaring a pandemic
When declaring a pandemic, the World Health Organization has the last word. There is no threshold, such as a certain number of deaths or infections, or a number of countries affected, that needs to be met.
And once a pandemic is declared, it becomes more likely that community spread will eventually happen, and governments and health systems need to ensure they are prepared for that.
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The pandemic
According to the World Health Organization, a pandemic is declared when a new disease for which people do not have immunity spreads around the world beyond expectations.
Declaring a pandemic
When declaring a pandemic, the World Health Organization has the last word. There is no threshold, such as a certain number of deaths or infections, or a number of countries affected, that needs to be met.
And once a pandemic is declared, it becomes more likely that community spread will eventually happen, and governments and health systems need to ensure they are prepared for that.
Dealing with the current pandemic
Although a pandemic has been declared, there is no need for global panic. Panic would defeat the purpose of trying to raise awareness.
It is still urging countries to detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people.
“The use of this term [pandemic] however highlights the importance of countries throughout the world working cooperatively and openly with one another and coming together as a united front in our efforts to bring this situation under control.”
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Epidemic vs. pandemic
An epidemic is a broad term used to describe any problem that is actively spreading and has grown out of control.
The pandemic rel...
Disease Event Classification
Epidemiology is the branch of medicine that handles the following:
- Incidence: the occurrence of a disease over a specified period.
- Prevalence: how many people are affected within a population.
- Control of diseases: an appropriate public health response.
Two measurable factors mostly define the level of disease occurrence:
- The pattern and speed by which a disease moves.
- The size of the susceptible population.
The terms an epidemiologist use
- Sporadic refers to a disease that occurs infrequently or irregularly.
- Cluster refers to a disease that occurs in larger numbers even though the actual number or cause may be uncertain.
- Endemic refers to the constant presence and/or general prevalence of a disease in a geographic population.
- Hyperendemic refers to persistent, high levels of disease well above what is seen in other populations.
- Epidemic refers to a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected.
- Outbreak is the same as an epidemic but is often used to describe a more limited geographic event.
- Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.
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Outbreak terms
- Endemic is a disease that regularly infects humans, like the flu.
- Pandemic is a worldwide spread of a new disease.
- Epidemic
Public health measures
- Social distancing is a slew of tactics meant to keep people at a six feet distance from each other to keep droplets from an infected person's nose or mouth from landing on another person.
- Quarantine is restricting the movement of, or isolating, people who might have been exposed to an infection but who aren't sick.
- Isolation is separating people with confirmed or probable infections from other healthy people.
- Lockdown is a term used by public health officials or lawyers to refer to anything from mandatory geographic quarantine to non-mandatory recommendations to shelter in place, to anything in between.
- Cordon sanitaire is the restriction of movement in and out of a region or city.
- Shelter in place is an order requesting people to stay at home, except for trips to the grocery store, pharmacies, and other essential errands.
Medical equipment
- A ventilator is a machine that assists a patient in breathing when they have trouble breathing on their own.
- PPE (Personal protective equipment), such as masks, gloves, face shields, and other gear that keeps health care workers from catching an infection.
- A respirator is a face mask that seals around the mouth and filters out particles from the air before they are breathed in.
- Surgical mask or face mask are loose-fitting masks that don't filter out all the particles but stop a wearer from spreading droplets of contagion when they sneeze or cough.
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A History Of Pandemics
- A Pandemic is defined as the proliferation of a disease over the whole country or the entire world.
- Diseases and illnesses have troubled humanity since the earliest days, but ...
Quarantined
- The original use of the word Quarantine was the act of anchoring a ship arrived in Venice, Italy, for 40 days before landing.
- Infectiousness of any disease is measured by the reproduction number (R0, or R naught). For example, Smallpox has an R0 of 6 whereas Measles has an R0 of 16.
- Vaccination, if available, and herd immunity can curb the spread of disease.
- Big cities, with exploding population and traffic, can lead to the rapid spread of any infectious disease.