epidemic
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.5|Example of an epidemic showing the number of new infections over time. An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί epi "upon or above" and δῆμος demos "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic.
AI overview
An epidemic is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of people in a population over a short period of time. It matters because understanding when disease spread reaches epidemic levels—defined by specific thresholds like infection rates—helps public health officials recognize and respond to serious health threats.
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Article
17 sectionsContents
- Definition
- Causes
- Antigenic Change
- Drug resistance
- Changes in transmission
- Seasonality
- Human behaviour
- Changes in the host population
- Zoonosis
- Types
- Common source outbreak
- Propagated outbreak
- Preparation
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|upright=1.5|Example of an epidemic showing the number of new infections over time. An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί epi "upon or above" and δῆμος demos "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic.
Epidemics of infectious disease are generally caused by several factors including a change in the ecology of the host population (e.g., increased stress or increase in the density of a vector species), a genetic change in the pathogen reservoir or the introduction of an emerging pathogen to a host population (by movement of pathogen or host). Generally, an epidemic occurs when host immunity to either an established pathogen or newly emerging novel pathogen is suddenly reduced below that found in the endemic equilibrium and the transmission threshold is exceeded.