What is the meaning of pandemic and how is it different from an epidemic or an outbreak

• Pandemic originated from Greek word pandemos which in this case means a disease that affects ‘all people’.
  
• Defining coronavirus as pandemic has nothing to do with how it spreads or its symptoms.
  
• It is an indication of how quickly it is spreading across countries.
  
  

On March 11, World Health Organisation said that the novel coronavirus has spread across more than 100 countries and called it a pandemic. As of March 12, there were currently 126,367 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 4,633 deaths. Out of the total confirmed cases, 80,796 are from China.

India too has quarantined itself by suspending all existing visas from March 13 till April 15. Moreover, the government also imposed Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 — a British-era law used to control plague in late 1800s. Any person who denies to obey government advisory to contain the disease shall be punished.

What is a pandemic?

According to WHO, pandemic means the ‘worldwide spread of a new disease’. Pandemic originated from Greek word pandemos which means a disease that affects ‘all people’. In simple words, any new disease that has spread across a country, continent or around the world can be categorized as pandemic.

Declaration of the novel coronavirus as pandemic has nothing to do with how it spreads or its symptoms. It is an indication of how quickly it is geographically spreading across countries.

Pandemic is the highest level in global health emergencies that warns of a disease spreading at a mass level. At first, WHO has been avoiding calling it a pandemic as it might panic people across the world and classified it as a series of epidemics.

Outbreak, on the other hand, means a sudden occurance of a disease in a particular time at a particular place. Diseases classified as an outbreak affects a small community. Whereas, epidemic refers to a disease that affects a local region but globally.

However, once a disease is declared pandemic, it means it has spread across the world. All governments, health systems and businesses have to take preventive measures


WHO believes pandemic has to be contained using extensive and aggressive steps. All the countries are urged to “detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilise their people”. The last disease to be called pandemic was H1N1 flu, commonly known as Swine flu, that killed 575,000 people around the world in 2009.

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