What’s the difference between a Pandemic, and an Epidemic?

Diksha Bhardwaj
2 min readApr 24, 2020

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World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global “Pandemic” But what does that mean “How a Pandemic is different from an Epidemic?”

Not all contagious disease terms are the same, though often they’re incorrectly used. The differentiation between the words “Pandemic, “and “Epidemic” is consistently obscured, even by clinical experts. This is because the meaning of each term is liquid and changes as ailments become pretty much common after some time.

While conversational use of these words probably won’t require exact definitions, knowing the correct difference between “Pandemic, “and “Epidemic” is very important to help you understand better about the public health news.

WHO has declared coronavirus a pandemic because of the oddly quick rate in which the COVID-19 virus is spreading? Millions of people in more than 175 nations across the globe are infected from Novel Coronavirus. This deadly virus has killed more than 42,000 people and has a global casualty pace of 4.4%. But what’s the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic, and how does designating pandemic status impact COVID-19?

How about we start with basic definitions:

Q. What is an epidemic?

An epidemic is an outbreak of virus/infection that is affecting many people and spreads very quickly at the same over a larger area. People in Wuhan city of china began testing positive for virus with SARS — CoV-2 and epidemiologists then knew the epidemic was spreading; a likely sign that control efforts were not enough or came too late. This was not sudden, but the number of increasing cases of COVID-19 across China meant that the coronavirus had grown to an epidemic.

Q. What is Pandemic?

When a large geographical area affects an exceptionally high proportion of inhabitants with an outbreak of a disease is called a pandemic.

Common Confusion Between a Pandemic, and an Epidemic:

While the epidemic is typically used to describe matters of wellbeing, it is sometimes used to depict behavior or behavioral phenomena. While the usages are not improper in the current situation, they can confuse. Additionally, even when the word is used to define health issues, it may not exactly depict the scale or progression of a virus. In some cases, terms like an endemic may be more correct. In others, an epidemic may fall short in explaining the scale of the problem and be better defined as a pandemic.

Summary: When considering the public wellbeing news it’s important to know the differences between a Pandemic, and an Epidemic. According to an epidemiologic point of view, terms like these direct the communal health response to better control and prevent a virus/infection.

(Source Link: https://reporteraunty.com/difference/whats-the-difference-between-a-pandemic-and-an-epidemic/ )

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Diksha Bhardwaj
Diksha Bhardwaj

Written by Diksha Bhardwaj

Animal Lover 🐶, Foodie 🥪, Coffee Supplies ☕, Tattooed 🔱, Visual Storyteller 🗒️, Keep it real on and offline .✌️

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