Pandemic and endemic
Recently swine flu (the virus subtype H1N1) has been declared a pandemic.
Often we get confused with the application of the terms pandemic and endemic. Well, before drawing a line differentiating the terms, let's have a look at another related term, i.e., epidemic which refers to an outbreak of an infectious disease that attacks many people at about the same time and may spread through one or several communities.
Pandemic is a very extensive epidemic that spreads through population across a large region or throughout the world, e.g. plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, HIV, avian flu, swine flu, et cetera.
Endemic is a disease that exists permanently in a particular region or population. For instance, malaria exists in parts of Africa.
In a nutshell, a disease when confined to a particular area is called endemic, when it spreads to a vast area it is referred to as a pandemic.
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