Pandemics, endemics, and epidemics
- Diferencias entre pandemia, endemia y epidemia
- Differences between pandemic, endemic and epidemic
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, earthsound / Public domain
The terms pandemic, endemic and epidemic, although colloquially can even be used many times as synonyms, in technical terms they mean different things and depend on their spread.
An endemic or endemic infection is one that is found in an area permanently, such as chickenpox or malaria in some parts of Africa (BBC News Mundo, 2020). These diseases affect a defined group and their permanence is for a long time, unlike an epidemic or a pandemic, the number of people affected is usual or expected for a specific population or region.
An epidemic is an unexpected increase in infection cases in a region (Télam, 2020), which has the particularity of reaching a maximum point to continue with a decrease, an example of this may be the flu as a seasonal disease, there are It should be borne in mind that not all epidemics are of infectious origin, since they can also come from toxins or food (Horcajada & Padilla, 2013). Another term related to an epidemic is an outbreak, this would be a highly localized epidemic, such as in a school or town (Universidad Internacional de Valencia, 2018).
A pandemic is an infection that occurs at the same time in much of the world. In these cases, they are usually new diseases, such as influenza viruses to which the population does not have immunity (Organización Mundial de la Salud, 2010), examples of this are influenza, H1N1 or SARS-CoV-2, that is, an epidemic at its best. Pandemics are very easy to spread and transmit between geographic sectors, so when they appear, different governments must take a series of precautions to avoid contagion. The response of these diseases depends on the speed with which they can be controlled, either by preventive strategies or by effective and timely treatment strategies (Vial C., 2009).
References:
BBC News Mundo (2020). Coronavirus: ¿cuál es la diferencia entre pandemia, epidemia y una infección endémica?. Recuperado de https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-51235995
Horcajada, J.P. & Padilla, B. (2013). “Endemia y epidemia. Investigación de un brote epidémico nosocomial”. En Enferm Infecc Microbiol Clin. 2013;31(3):181-6.
Organización Mundial de la Salud (2010). ¿Qué es una pandemia?. Recuperado de https://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/pandemic/es/
Télam (2020). ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre epidemia, endemia y pandemia?. Recuperado de https://www.telam.com.ar/notas/202003/439815-epidemia-pandemia-diferencias.html
Universidad Internacional de Valencia (2018). Claves para diferenciar entre endemia, epidemia y pandemia. Recuperado de https://www.universidadviu.com/endemia/
Vial C, P.A. (2009). “Las epidemias: ¿Se Mandan Solas?”. En Rev. chil. Pediatric., Santiago, v.80, n.3, jun.2009.
How to cite this article:
Nocetti, F.A. (2020). "Pandemics, endemics, and epidemics". In NabbuBlog. Retrieved from http://nabbublog.blogspot.com/2020/03/pandemics-endemics-and-epidemics.html