Know your medical terms: Pandemic

Do you know what 'pandemic' means? Here is a simple explanation.

By: Bhavyajyoti Chilukoti | | Updated: August 27, 2014 10:38 am

Whenever you read or hear about any recent disease outbreak affecting a large group of population, you may come across a term – pandemic. But do you know what this term actually means? Also Read - Why fast-tracking COVID-19 vaccines can be dangerous

Also Read - New swine flu discovered in China not an immediate threat: Experts

The word ‘pandemic’ is derived from a Greek word pandemos, where ‘pan’ means all and ‘demos’ means population or group of people. Hence pandemic is a clinical term that means affecting all or nearly everyone in the population. Pandemic refers to a sudden outbreak (epidemic) of disease/illness that affects an entire region, continent or the world due to a group of people who are susceptible (people who are at high risk or vulnerable) to a specific disease. A true pandemic causes a high rate of death as it affects a large population and spreads very rapidly within the group. Also Read - New swine flu virus found in China: Can it trigger another pandemic?

Some of the pandemics of ancient times include small pox and tuberculosis, while the recent ones include the HIV pandemic and H1N1 pandemic.

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Published : June 26, 2014 10:31 am | Updated:August 27, 2014 10:38 am

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