ANDpidemic, pandemic and finally, endemic. These are the three words that have distinguished three different periods of these two years and beyond. But these three terms do not have the same meaning at all. Indeed, there is a big difference, and knowing it is important to understand how the spread of the virus evolves which has revolutionized the existence of the whole world.
Epidemic at the beginning, then pandemic, endemic now
When the coronavirus began to spread in early 2020 it was right to speak of an epidemic. It was an infection that spread from one man to several people, making the infected increase quickly, in a specific place.
As Covid cases began to be seen around the world, the World Health Organization had to proclaim the pandemic which occurs when the virus and the incidence of cases are spread across several continents.
Today, two years later, however, the term “endemic” is used more and more frequently. Because the virus, which will be less deadly and, thanks to vaccines, less widespread, it will become part of our lives such as a cold or pneumonia in severe cases.
But let’s see specific differences, as explained by the Italian and international health institutions.
Epidemic
As the World Health Organization explains, with the term epidemic means the frequent and localized manifestation, but limited in time, of an infectious disease, with widespread transmission of the virus. Occurs when a sick person infects more than one person and the number of cases of the disease increases rapidly in a short time.
The infection therefore spreads in a population made up of a sufficient number of susceptible individuals. The term epidemic is often referred to as an increase in the number of cases beyond the expected in a particular area and in a specific time interval.
Pandemic
The pandemic, on the other hand, means that a new virus is spreading from human to human over large areas of the world. The pandemic phase, therefore, is characterized by transmission to the majority of the population. On March 11, 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic considering the international outbreak from SARS-CoV-2 a world-wide public health emergency.
“The public health emergency of international importance”, reads theInternational Health Regulations, IHR, the International Health Regulations «It is a sudden or unexpected extraordinary event that involves repercussions for public health and can constitute one health threat to other Member States through the spread of a disease. And that for this reason may potentially require an immediate and coordinated response at the international level ».
Endemic
A disease is considered endemic when the responsible agent is permanently present and circulates in the population with a more or less high number of cases, but manifesting more sporadically or in small outbreaks and with an incidence relatively uniform, constantly over time, without presenting particular frequency peaks.
Many endemic diseases, such as for example malaria in some regions of Asia, they show seasonal cycles or in any case are strongly affected by specific and contingent environmental situations. Many infectious diseases, such as chicken pox, measles or salmonellosis, are considered endemic in our country.
An endemic disease can however present the so-called epidemic upsurge, that is, when the virus occasionally generates outbreaks or epidemic increases and then re-enters a “normal” circulation among the population.
And finally, the sporadic case
After the three definitions, there is also the sporadic case, we read on the dell website‘Higher Institute of Health, which would be what occurs in a population in which a certain disease is not permanently present. Which does not mean that the virus no longer exists. It only means that that microorganism, despite being permanently on the territory, is closed in its natural reservoir egonly exceptionally goes out, penetrating a human host and giving rise to disease.
Clearly the globalization, by importing cases from an endemic territory to one where cases do not normally occur, plays a large part in the rapid mutation of the spread of infectious diseases.
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