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| President Barack
Obama is briefed in the Situation Room about the
2009 flu pandemic, which killed as many as
17,000 Americans. |
Pandemic
A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν, pan, "all" and δῆμος, demos,
"local people" the 'crowd') is an epidemic of an
infectious disease that has spread across a large
region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide,
affecting a substantial number of people. A widespread
endemic disease with a stable number of infected people
is not a pandemic. Widespread endemic diseases with a
stable number of infected people such as recurrences of
seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur
simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than
being spread worldwide.
Throughout human history, there have been a number of
pandemics of diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis.
The most fatal pandemic in recorded history was the
Black Death (also known as The Plague), which killed an
estimated 75–200 million people in the 14th century. The
term was not used yet but was for later pandemics
including the 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu).
Current pandemics include COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) and
HIV/AIDS. |
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Common killers and pandemics
According to the World Health Organization, a pandemic
can start when three conditions have been met: |
- the emergence of a disease new to
the population.
- the agent infects humans, causing
serious illness.
- the agent spreads easily and
sustainably among humans.
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A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it
is widespread or kills many people; it must also be
infectious. For example cancer is responsible for many
deaths but is not considered a pandemic because the disease
is not infectious (although certain causes of some types of
cancer might be). |
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World Health Organization
pandemic phases
The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a plan
to prepare globally the fight against influenza. It
defines the stages of a pandemic and makes
recommendations for national measures before and during
a pandemic. The phases are: |
- Interpandemic period:
- Phase 1: No new influenza virus
subtypes have been detected in humans.
- Phase 2: No new influenza virus
subtypes have been detected in humans, but an animal
variant threatens human disease.
- Pandemic alert period:
- Phase 3: Human infection(s) with a
new subtype but no human-to-human spread.
- Phase 4: Small cluster(s) with
limited localized human-to-human transmission
- Phase 5: Larger cluster(s) but
human-to-human spread still localized.
- Pandemic period:
- Phase 6: Pandemic: increased and
sustained transmission in general population.
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