Endemic, epidemic, pandemic: What are the differences?

The coronavirus pandemic is the perfect background for understanding what exactly a pandemic is, and how it can impact all aspects of life. Since the onset of COVID19 in 2020, we have been flooded with new medical and scientific terms to understand the virus and the response that followed it. Today we will deal with 3 such terms that are closely related but different, making them confusing, until we understand them. 

What is an endemic?   
An endemic is a disease outbreak affecting a particular region. Facts about the disease gets well-researched, and its causes, rate of spreading, and prevention methods can be found out. Malaria, for example, is considered an endemic in India. Sometimes, a certain city may have a concentrated malaria outbreak where almost everyone in a locality gets it, but it remains contained in that zone.  

What is an epidemic?  
An epidemic is an unexpected increase in the number of disease cases for a particular ailment in a specific geographical area, or at times, within a community in that area. Smallpox, polio and cholera used to cause epidemics in our country. They disease may not be contagious, as with polio, but huge numbers of kids were affected by polio till the vaccination process started. Plague epidemics had wiped out huge populations in Europe and India once upon a time.  

What is a Pandemic?  
The World Health Organization (WHO) declares a pandemic when a disease’s growth is exponential across the globe. This means the growth rate skyrockets, and each day the number of cases multiply on the previous day’s number. Pandemic refers to a disease so fast moving and widespread that factors dealing with virology, community health, climate etc. no longer remain simple to trace. As a result, causes and prevention methods are very difficult to find out.   

Why does a pandemic become so scary?  
A pandemic cuts across international boundaries, unlike the regional endemic or epidemics. This wide geographical reach leads to large-scale social disruption, economic loss, reduced quality of life, and general hardship. While an epidemic is also large scale, it is within a certain boundary. But pandemics happen on global scale, so they are uncontrollable.