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Many hope that the coronavirus will disappear as soon as possible. However, some virologists are of the opinion that this virus may become endemic after the appearance of “Omicron”. Which means: We have to live with it
Endemi: Constant threat
A disease, which occurs regularly in certain regions is defined as endemic. In one endemic, the number of patients remains more or less constant, it is higher than in other regions, but does not increase over time. At a given time more or less the same number of people get sick. A typical example of endemism is malaria. This disease affects about 300 million people a year, mainly in the tropics.
The World Health Organization, WHO was of the opinion as early as May 2020, that the Corona virus could become an endemic virus. The Omikron and Delta variants showed that the virus adapts to the flu. Which means he is now among humanity, and in certain regions we will have to learn to live with this because he will not disappear anymore.
Epidemic: Only in one region
An epidemic is spoken of when a disease appears unusually frequent in a region at a given time. And a pandemic is an epidemic that transcends the borders of a country or even a continent. This means, first of all, that successful control of the disease depends on the cooperation of the health systems of different countries. The geographical opposite of a pandemic is endemic.
If the number of diseases in a certain region rises above the normal expected endemic level, then we are talking about an epidemic. But if the cases of diseases are localized only in one place, there is talk of an outbreak.
An epidemic is created, for example, when the striking force of a particular virus changes. Viruses undergo mutations and thus become more contagious. Even when new diseases appear in a certain region it can turn into an epidemic. The condition for this is that the disease be transmitted from person to person. For example, smallpox, which in the early 16th century was brought by the European invaders of the continent to America. Because the indigenous population had never been in contact with this disease before, she had no immunity to it. According to some estimates, nearly 90% of America’s indigenous population fell victim to smallpox.
Pandemic: Worldwide spread
And when a disease spreads across countries and continents there is talk of a pandemic. According to the WHO pandemics are mainly caused by new types of viruses and other pathogens. These can be zoonoses, diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans. If a disease is new to man, very few people may be immune to it. This causes many people to get sick at the same time. How dangerous or deadly the course of the disease is depends on the specific virus or the health condition of the person.
But even if a disease proportionately in most cases has harmless course, the number of seriously ill in a pandemic may be very high. This is simply because many people are infected with the virus. A typical disease that occasionally takes on pandemic proportions is the flu. The Spanish flu in 1918 caused 25-50 million casualties, more than in World War I. But even in a pandemic certain areas or certain regions may remain untouched by it, islands or mountainous areas e.g. Today air traffic increases the rapid spread of pandemics.
The notions of epidemic and pandemic are normally associated with infectious diseases. But because these signal an emergency and need to be acted upon quickly, the definitions are also used for other non-communicable diseases, such as the diabetes epidemic./ DW
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