Pandemic vs. epidemic: What’s the difference?

By Medicine Hat News on April 2, 2020.

We are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and there is good reason why it is called a pandemic rather than an epidemic.

On March 12, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It is a pandemic because it is a global outbreak rather than a regional one.

A pandemic may start out as an epidemic – an illness affecting many people in a specific city, province, region or perhaps one country in a sudden or unanticipated outbreak.

The word epidemic could also indicate an illness that is out of control or actively spreading in a specific area. If it then spreads beyond that – perhaps across the world – it could be declared a pandemic.

According to online information there was a flu pandemic in 1968 and the HIV/AIDS spread was declared a pandemic as well.

The reason for a pandemic could be that it is a new virus with little or no immunity and is spreading rapidly causing more deaths.

The ZIKA virus epidemic in 2014 began in Brazil and spread across the Caribbean and Latin America. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was also an epidemic from 2014-16.

The words epidemic or pandemic do not specifically indicate how bad the virus or disease is but rather the geographical spread of the disease and how many people are affected.

One of the reasons for an organization such as the WHO deciding to declare a pandemic is because it provides health agencies with the authority to respond to a higher degree. The declaration of a pandemic also raises awareness in a bid to help control it.

The so-called Spanish flu of 1918 was a pandemic, infecting about a third of the world’s population. It is estimated to have been the cause of up to 50 million deaths. The Spanish flu did not originate in Spain, but it is the country that first reported the outbreak.

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