Endemic, Epidemic, Pandemic – What Do They Mean?
The swine flu vaccination program began a couple of weeks ago and is now in full swing. Some of the terminology used in discussing this infection can be quite confusing so here are some terms you may come across. An infection is said to be Endemic in a population when there is a constant amount of infection present. For example in the UK there will be a number of chicken pox cases reported each year. The chicken pox is passed around from person to person but as long as the number infected remains more or less the same each year, then we can say that chicken pox is endemic in the population. On the other hand if we take malaria as an example, we will find a number of cases detected each year in travelers returning from abroad. The number may even be the same from year to year. There is one significant difference however, and that is, that the infection cannot be passed on from person to person. In the case of malaria we need the presence of an external factor for the disease to run thro
