The coronavirus continues to spread around the world, in Asia where China is still and largely the most affected country, but also in Europe: Italy is experiencing an outbreak of coronavirus cases on its territory. In France, new cases have appeared, bringing the toll to 17 diagnosed cases and one man has died. For now, “There’s no […] epidemic in France“, wanted to reassure the Minister of Health Olivier Véran during a press briefing on February 23. “But there is a critical situation” at the gates of the country, he added. As for the WHO, it declared a public health emergency of international concern, but not the pandemic.
The epidemic: a rapid and localized appearance
An epidemic is the intermittent but rapid appearance of an infectious and contagious disease. It affects a population group to a greater or lesser extent, in a given region. For example, we are talking about the winter flu epidemic, which claims many victims every year among the elderly and frail. Ebola disease, although serious, is also considered an epidemic because it is limited to a geographical area.
The endemic: a habitual, permanent presence
Unlike the epidemic which appears seasonally, in peaks, the endemic persists in the same region in a usual way. We speak, for example, of an endemic disease to evoke malaria or yellow fever, which claim many victims in Africa.
The pandemic: a large-scale epidemic
As for the epidemic, the pandemic appears suddenly and in addition, it rages on the scale of a very wide geographical area, on the occasion of the emergence of a new virus. In addition, it refers to the appearance of new strains which have undergone genetic modifications and therefore spread rapidly. Consequence: millions of people are infected, in the absence of immunity in the vast majority of the population. No vaccine is then available, fragile people are therefore less well protected. The pandemic has, in short, an uncontrollable nature.
