Definition




A pandemic is an epidemic occurring on a scale that crosses international boundaries, usually affecting people on a worldwide scale. A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For instance, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic because the disease is neither infectious nor contagious.

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Notable outbreaks

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This section needs expansion with: Dengue fever. You can help by adding to it. ( June 2020 ) In human history, it is generally zoonoses such as influenza and tuberculosis which constitute most of the widespread outbreaks, resulting from the domestication of animals. There have been a number of particularly significant epidemics that deserve mention above the "mere" destruction of cities: Plague of Athens (430 to 426 BC): During the Peloponnesian War, typhoid fever killed a quarter of the Athenian troops and a quarter of the population. This disease fatally weakened the dominance of Athens, but the sheer virulence of the disease prevented its wider spread; i.e. it killed off its hosts at a rate faster than they could spread it. The exact cause of the plague was unknown for many years. In January 2006, researchers from the University of Athens analyzed teeth recovered from a mass grave underneath the city and confirmed the presence of bacteria responsible for typhoid. Antonin
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Current pandemics

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HIV/AIDS edit Although the WHO uses the term "global epidemic" to describe HIV ( "WHO HIV/AIDS Data and Statistics" . Retrieved 12 April 2020 . ), as HIV is no longer an uncontrollable outbreak outside of Africa, some authors use the term "pandemic". HIV originated in Africa, and spread to the United States via Haiti between 1966 and 1972. AIDS is currently a pandemic in Africa, with infection rates as high as 25% in southern and eastern Africa. In 2006, the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women in South Africa was 29%. Effective education about safer sexual practices and bloodborne infection precautions training have helped to slow down infection rates in several African countries sponsoring national education programs. citation needed In 2017, approximately 1 million people in the United States had HIV; 14% did not realize that they were infected. COVID-19 edit A new strain of coronavirus was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, Ch
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Assessment

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Stages edit The World Health Organization (WHO) previously applied a six-stage classification to describe the process by which a novel influenza virus moves from the first few infections in humans through to a pandemic. It starts when mostly animals are infected with a virus and a few cases where animals infect people, then moves to the stage where the virus begins to be transmitted directly between people and ends with the stage when infections in humans from the virus have spread worldwide. In February 2020, a WHO spokesperson clarified that "there is no official category for a pandemic".a World Health Organization (WHO) influenza pandemic phase descriptions Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Phase 6 Post peak Possible new wave Post-pandemic Uncertain probability of pandemic Medium to high probability High to certain probability Pandemic in progress — — — Animal-to-animal infection only Animal-to-human infection Sporadic or clustered cases in hum
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