Difference between Epidemic, Pandemic and Endemic
The epidemic is the appearance of a malaise in quantity above normal in a city in a fixed time. Epidemics and pandemics are currently followed and reported by local and national authorities and by international representations such as the World Health Organization (WHO).
Epidemic
It is a disease that occurs in a community or region of cases of health-related event ahead of normal with a common or related cause. This term used before to choose this type of event was plague or plague), thus the bubonic plague or the black plague is called.
Today the word Epidemic is used more widely in the following:
- Infectious diseases: influenza epidemic.
- Chronic diseases: diabetes epidemic.
- Lifestyles: epidemic of overweight and metabolic syndrome.
Pandemic
It is a disease that spreads to a larger place and affects a larger proportion of people. It is the consequence of an epidemic that goes outside the regional health control due to different situations.
An important element in the transformation of an epidemic into a pandemic is the instability of the population:
- Through commercial exchange;
- For travel and migration.
- Military incursions and war problems.
The ease with which we move between countries is a concern when a contagious disease spreads. Transmission vectors, such as mosquitoes and rats, can also travel long distances by means of transportation.
endemic
It is a disease that is preserved in a city or area for a long-term time.
Different diseases are endemic in different regions or populations and become epidemic when they are transferred to other places, this affects people who had not been previously exposed.
The classic example is that of the epidemics of measles and tuberculosis in native areas of America, when European colonizers obtained them and these diseases were common.
Epidemic, Pandemic and Endemic
| Epidemic | Pandemic | endemic | |
| Definition | Disease that affects a greater number of the population than the previous one in a certain region. | Epidemic disease that spreads to other places worrying a large number of people. | Disease found in a certain region. |
| Etymology | From the Greek epi: on and demos: town. | From the Greek pan: everything and demos: people. | From the Greek in: demos: people. |
| Geographic location | Restricted in a region. | Abundantly distributed in different regions. | Conditioned in a geographical area. |
| Temporality | Limited to a certain time. | It expands for long-term periods of time. | It is kept for a long time indefinitely. |
| examples | Cholera in India.
Flu Ebola in West Africa in 2014. |
The black plague fourteenth century
SARS HIV AIDS Cholera in South America and Central America. COVID-19 |
Measles before its eradication by vaccination.
Malaria in Africa |