Swine Flu Info Blog

8 comments:

juno406 said...

An epidemic affects many people at the same time but is localized....a pandemic is widespread geographically and may even be worldwide.

July 20, 2009 at 6:59 AM

robocop4 said...

Epidemic = Localized infectious event.
Pandemic= Wide Spread infectious event.
So Eboli in Africa wipes out 3 villages (Epidemic)
1819 Flu kills 3% of the worlds population (Pandemic)
Black Plague kills 33% of Europe population (Epidemic)
Most of this has to do with how the virus is transmitted. Epidemics re usually viruses or bacterium that pass from human to human and therefore can be quarantine to a specific area.
Pandemics are often transfered from animal to human and back to animals. Thus birds could carry it around the world during seasonal migrations or during livestock exchanges.

July 20, 2009 at 12:53 PM

Will said...

A pandemic is a world wide epidemic.

July 20, 2009 at 1:31 PM

Shmootsy said...

Not really a difference, the two words are synonymous. Both words can refer to the spread of a disease. However, pandemic is generally used when discussing the spread of a disease. Whereas epidemic can refer to other occurrences, such as the spread of crime, drug use, etc. For example, one might say "crime is epidemic in this city." Both are used in a negative connotation. Hope this helps.

July 20, 2009 at 2:23 PM

codename said...

Epidemics can be limited to certain areas. Pandemics go worldwide.

July 20, 2009 at 3:22 PM

runs_wit said...

epidemics are centered in one specific area while pandemics affect the entire world.

July 20, 2009 at 6:47 PM

Half-pin said...

an epidemic is more localized and a pandemic is international.

July 20, 2009 at 10:56 PM

orphanan said...

A pandemic (from Greek pan all + demos people) is an epidemic (an outbreak of an infectious disease) that spreads worldwide, or at least across a large region.
From wikipedia.org
Apparently, pandemic means more widespread globally while epidemic can be a regional outbreak

July 21, 2009 at 12:44 AM