lovesouthernsocial.com

Terms refer to contagious diseases, classifying them according to severity or location of problems

Image: kian zhang on Unsplash

Outbreak, epidemic, pandemic and endemic are terms used to refer to contagious diseases that spread among the population and infect alarming numbers of people. According to the progression and severity of the problems, local, national or international authorities choose one of the terms to describe the situation.

Understand the difference between each of these classifications and learn how to prevent yourself.

Outbreak

The spread of a disease is classified as an outbreak when there is an unexpected increase in the number of infected people in a specific region. In other words, the term “outbreak” is used to indicate the growth in the number of cases of the disease in specific places, usually neighborhoods or cities.

In 2017, the sudden increase in the number of yellow fever cases in Minas Gerais was considered an outbreak. The report released by the state in 2018 confirmed 61 deaths among the 164 cases registered in the previous year. Avoiding the agglomeration of people at times of outbreaks of certain diseases and reinforcing vaccination (if any) are ways to prevent the spread and spread of diseases.

An outbreak is the initial picture of the spread of a disease. Covid-19, for example, was initially described as an outbreak. After its expansion to several cities in China, it came to be considered an epidemic and, when it reached world levels, it was classified as a pandemic.

Epidemic

The term epidemic, in turn, is used when there is an occurrence of outbreaks in several regions. A municipal epidemic occurs when several neighborhoods have a certain disease, for example. If there are several cities, it is a state epidemic and there are also national epidemics, those in which there are cases of the same disease in different regions of the country.

Dengue is an example of a disease that has already reached the classification of an epidemic on more than one occasion, spreading to different regions of Brazil.

Pandemic

The pandemic state is the worst case scenario when it comes to infected areas: it happens when an epidemic reaches worldwide levels, affecting several regions around the planet. For the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the existence of a pandemic, countries on all continents need to have confirmed cases of the disease, as happened with Covid-19.

Currently, pandemics can occur more easily, as the ease in the movement of people between countries favors the spread of diseases.

The Spanish flu was considered the biggest pandemic of the 20th century, with 50 million deaths caused by the disease. The Spanish flu virus was a subtype of another that we know well today, Influenza A, which causes the H1N1 flu.

AIDS, caused by the HIV virus, is another pandemic that is currently very well known. This virus attacks the blood cells that command the immune system, responsible for the body's defense. Once infected, these cells lose the ability to protect the human body, which starts to contract diseases that would not affect a healthy person.

The main way to prevent the effects of a pandemic is to have surveillance systems that quickly detect cases, laboratories equipped to identify the cause of the disease, have a team qualified to contain the outbreak, preventing new cases, and have systems of crisis management, to coordinate the response. In addition, the restriction of travel and trade and the establishment of quarantine are measures taken by the authorities to contain the spread of diseases.

Endemic

Endemic diseases are those that frequently occur in a particular region, remaining restricted to it. Endemic diseases are seasonal, that is, their frequency varies according to the time of year. Furthermore, they may be related to social, hygienic and biological aspects.

Thus, this concept is not related to the number of reported cases in a geographic region. Yellow Fever, for example, is considered an endemic disease in the northern region of Brazil.