Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 235. Today we are going to look at the difference between epidemic, pandemic and endemic. Yeah. I often have questions about this
.sometimes someone will ask what is the difference between this and some of the other ones. So let's take a look at the note first. So let's take a look at
epidemic. Epidemic has two uses. So first epidemic can refer to a contagious
infectious or viral illness that can be spread over a specific area. Now the key part here
with epidemic is a specific area. Now it could be a single country or if it is
more than one country it's probably country that's just bordering the other
country. So it's still in the same area. The number of cases are much higher than
usual. So that's what makes it an epidemic. All right. Now epidemic can also have a
second use. A sudden increase especially in negative or unpleasant events that affect large amounts of people.
So an epidemic could be something that doesn't have anything to do with a
disease or not specifically a disease. It just has to be a negative event that has
suddenly increased on a much larger scale than usual. Okay. Let's take a look at pandemic. Pandemic refers
to a disease that spreads but it is not limited to one area or region and can affect millions of people all over the globe or all over the world. Pandemic
be much more widespread. It could go throughout many continents. Luckily we
haven't had as many of them in recent years. Okay. Let's look at endemic. Now endemic looks
similar to the word epidemic but endemic is not specifically larger than usual or
smaller than usual. Endemic this refers to a disease that always exists in a
particular region. So it's just common there all the time. They never seem to be
able to get rid of it. Maybe it's been there for many decades and they never
seem to be able to wipe it out. But it's not specifically
you know it had no specific increase recently. So endemic means that it's just
always there. It's a problem that continues to exist over long periods of
time in a particular place. All right so let's look at the examples. All right. Example number one. There was a serious flu
epidemic that spread across the US. this past winter. Yeah. Luckily the flu is not
that big, but it was a much more serious of flu season than usual. People caught
it more. I think maybe even more people might have died from it. You know you
don't usually have that many people die from the flu. So it was a much larger increase than usual,
But again it was probably mostly around the US. . So it was kind of a limited
area. So here it's an epidemic. And this one is related to disease. Okay. Let's look at
number two. In recent decades, the US has suffered a serious obesity epidemic. Right now
this is a good example because it's not specifically a disease but it is a
problem. You know being fat, you know being too overweight that could also be an epidemic. It is also one of these unpleasant events or some unpleasant occurrence that's negative. You know. We could say that.
Number three. In recent years then there has been a large rape epidemic in Europe. Sweden is now
the rape capital of the world. So again. It has absolutely nothing to do with an illness or
sickness. It could just be some unpleasant events but the number of cases or the number of
events could have had sudden increases. So let's look at number four.
The Spanish flu was a pandemic. Now this is a pandemic. that caused the deaths of almost 22
million people that started in 1980. Now this spread all over the world. We have had
other pandemics I think there was a TB tuberculosis pandemic in the past too.
And if you go back many centuries, you know the black plague was pandemic
too that spread all throughout Europe. and spread much further. So if it's if
it's closer to being worldwide, over a much
wider area, then it is a pandemic. Okay good and let's look at the last one here. Malaria is endemic throughout
many countries in Africa. Yeah so there's some countries in Africa that are always
dealing with malaria. It's not like you're specifically saying that this
year is worse than last year and there's no sudden increase. This is just the
problem that always exists and they have difficulty wiping it out or getting rid
of it completely. So it's endemic to a particular area. Okay. Well I hope it's clear. I
hope you got it. I hope it clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.