2020-11-23
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด P – Pandemic & epidemic& endemic
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้องนี้ เป็นไปตามมาตรฐานการใช้ภาษา
การใช้คำอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐาน ถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง Pandemic = ‘pan-DEM-ik’
ออกเสียง Epidemic = ‘ep-i-DEM-ik’
ออกเสียง endemic = ‘en-DEM-ik’
Dictionary.com
“Epidemic” vs. “Pandemic” vs. “Endemic”:
What Do These Terms Mean?
If you recall the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s
or are taking preparations against COVID-19 right now,
then you’ve definitely heard the words epidemic and pandemic.
With every biological outbreak,
we encounter these words being used more and more frequently—and often, inaccurately.
Why is it so easy for people to confuse these words?
Well, both words contain –demic and are used for disease outbreaks,
but they’re not exactly the same.
These similarities lead many people
to use the two words interchangeably or incorrectly altogether.
The key difference, however, is about scale.
So, let’s explore the two.
And for more info on need-to-know coronavirus words,
see our explainers on respirator vs. ventilator, quarantine vs. isolation, and our glossary
on all things COVID-19.
For health, safety, and medical emergencies or updates on the novel coronavirus pandemic,
please visit the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and WHO (World Health Organization).
What is an epidemic?
An epidemic disease is one
“affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) further
specifies epidemic asoccurring at the level of a region or community.
Epidemic is commonly used all on its own as a noun,
meaning “a temporary prevalence of a disease.”
For example: The city was able to stop the flu epidemic before it spread across the state.
Metaphorically,
epidemic is “a rapid spread orincrease in the occurrence of something,” usually with a negative or humorous connotation:
An epidemic of gentrification was affecting low-income communities
or The hipster look gave way to an epidemic of 1990s fashion.
The -demic part of epidemic (and pandemic) comes from the Greek dêmos, “people of a district.” This root also ultimately gives English the word democracy. More on the prefix epi– later.
What is a pandemic?
Compared to an epidemic disease,
a pandemic disease is an epidemic that has spread over a large area,
that is, it’s “prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world.”
Pandemic is also used as a noun, meaning “a pandemic disease.”
The WHO more specifically defines a pandemic
as “a worldwide spread of a new disease.”
On March 11, the WHO officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic due to the global spread and severity of the disease.
While pandemic can be used fora disease that has spread across an entire country or other large landmass, the word is generally reserved for diseases that have spread across continents or the entire world.
For instance: After documenting cases in all continents except Antarctica, scientists declared the disease a pandemic.
As an adjective, pandemic can also mean “general” and “universal,”
also often with a negative connotation.
However, pandemic appears to be most commonly used in the context of epidemiology,
which is concerned with infectious diseases.
Pandemic also entered English, through Latin, in the 1600s. Like epidemic, pandemic ultimately derives from the Greek pándēmos, “common, public.”
Also like epidemic, pandemic was originally used of diseases when in came into English.
What is an endemic?
Endemic is an adjective
that means natural to, native to, confined to, or widespread within a place or population of people.
Endemic is perhaps most commonly used to describe a disease that is prevalent in or restricted to a particular location, region, or population.
For example, malaria is said to be endemic to tropical regions. In this context, it can also be used as a noun: an endemic disease can simply be called an endemic.
When used to describe species of plants or animals that are found only within a specific place, it has the same meaning as native or indigenous,
as in This plant is endemic to this region.
It can also be applied to characteristics of a people, place, or situation,
as in Corruption was endemic in that organization when I worked there.
The first records of endemic in English come from the mid-1600s.
It comes from the Greek éndēm(os).
The prefix en- means “in or within” and the Greek root dēm(os) means “people.”
So the basic meaning of endemic
is “within a certain people” (or “within a certain area”).
How to use epidemic vs. pandemic vs. endemic
As we mentioned, it’s unsurprisingly easy to confuse these two words.
For one, they both feature -demic,
which can make it difficult to suss out
which word should be used in which situation.
But, here’s a handy rule of thumb forusing the prefixes
of these two words: epi- and pan-.
The prefix epi- is Greek and variously means “on, upon, near, at,” while pan-, also a Greek prefix, means “all.”
Knowing this, think of an epidemic as the start of something
—whether a disease or a trend
—spreading rapidly within a community or region,
whereas a pandemic is whatan epidemic becomes
once it reaches a far wider swath of people,
especially across continents or the entire world.
If something is spreading like wildfire,
it’s an epidemic.
If something has already spread likewildfire
and is currently massive in its reach and impact,
it’s a pandemic.
Due to its worldwide reach,
a pandemic can lead to a disease becoming endemic
(as opposed to being largely contained oreradicated through the use of vaccines, for example).
For good measure … here’s another
example of each in a sentence.
- The city had to close schools to contain a measles epidemic.
- Although it isn’t exactly known where the disease first originated, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic is estimated to have affected one-third of people across the entire globe.
- Polio is endemic in a few countries where its spread has not been contained.
What is the difference between an epidemic, pandemic, and an outbreak?
Not only are people widely calling COVID-19
both an epidemic and pandemic,
but they are also calling it an outbreak.
An outbreak is a “sudden breaking out or occurrence” or “eruption.”
When referring to an infectious disease,
an outbreak is specifically a sudden rise in cases,
especially when it is only or so far affecting a relatively localized area.
That makes a disease outbreak roughlysynonymous with an epidemic.
In everyday speech and writing, people
—as they are indeed doing for the novel coronavirus
—may more generally refer to the major spread of an infectious disease as an outbreak.
In official, medical, and scientific communication,
however, it’s important not to confuse a local epidemic
(such as a disease affecting just a city) with apandemic,
because that implies the outbreak spread all over the world.
What is an epicenter?
An epicenter is a “focal point, as ofactivity.”
If a country or region is called the epicenter of a pandemic disease,
that means more or an accelerating number of cases are being confirmed there than anywhere else in the world.
Sometimes an epicenter is calleda hotspot.
A particular site, such as a nursing home, where there is a sudden spate of new cases is also sometimes called a hotspot or even hot zone.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'Pandemic' vs 'Epidemic'
How they overlap and where they differ
What to Know
A disease can be declared an epidemic
when it spreads over a wide area and manyindividuals
are taken ill at the same time.
If the spread escalates further,
an epidemic can become a pandemic,
which affects an even wider geographical area
and a significant portion of the population becomes affected.
On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization officially changed
its designation of COVID-19, the illness caused by a coronavirus,
from an epidemic toa pandemic.
This shift prompted a considerable number of people to turn to the dictionary, in order to ascertain the difference between the two -demics. What is the difference between an epidemic anda pandemic?
Epidemic vs. Pandemic
An epidemic is defined
as “an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly
and affects many individuals at the same time.”
A pandemic is a type of epidemic (one with greater range and coverage), an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area
and affects an exceptionally high proportionof the population.
While a pandemic may be characterized as a type of epidemic,
you would not say that an epidemic is a type of pandemic.
Adjectives Before Nouns
Both words have functions and meanings
in addition to the ones given above.
Each word entered English as an adjective before being used as a noun, beginning in the 17th century.
An Epidemick plague, is a common and popular sicknesse,
hapning in some region, or countrey, at a certaine time,
caused by a certaine indisposition of the aire, or waters of the same region, producing in all sorts of people, one and the same kind of sicknesse. — Thomas Lodge, A treatise of the plague, 1603
These Praedicates certainly are not convertible with the fore-mentioned Diseases, and therefore ought not so rashly to be pronounced the Scorvey; which moreover is Endemick, the others Epidemick and Pandemick. — Gideon Harvey, The disease of London, 1675
Epidemic began being used as a noun laterin the 17th century; pandemic did not undergo this functional shift until the 19th.
CHAP. X. Of Pestilential and malignant Feavers, together with the small Pox, and such other Epidemics, as are Communicated by infection. — Anon., Pyretologia, 1674
Those diseases which have some strong resemblance in their general characters, and attack many individuals in a large extent of country at about the same time, are commonly called epidemics. If all, or about all the inhabitants of a country be similarly attacked, at or near the same time, with a particular complaint, it is more properly called a pandemic — J. A. Allen, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 5 Sept. 1832
Origins of Epidemic and Pandemic
Epidemic, which may be traced to the Greek epidḗmios
(“within the country, among the people, prevalent (of a disease)”),
may carry broader meanings,
such as “excessively prevalent,” “contagious,” or “characterized by very widespread growth or extent” (often used in a non-medical sense).
Pandemic is less often encountered in a broad and non-medical sense, but does have additional senses,
including “affecting the majority of people in a country or a number of countries”,
“found in most parts of the world and in varied ecological conditions,”
and “of or relating to common or sensual love”
(in this last sense the word is usually capitalized).
Pandemic comes from the Greek pandēmos (“of all the people”),
which itself is from pan- (“all, every”) and dēmos (“people”).
On the Novel Coronavirus
Some organizations and scientists had recommended calling the coronavirus a pandemic in the weeks prior to the World Health Organization deciding to do so.
It is worth noting, however, that
there is no clear line distinguishing an epidemic froma pandemic.
The latter is, from a public health perspective, worse than the former, but there is sufficient overlap between the two that at certain points consensus is unlikely.
The coronavirus has, unfortunately, spread now to such a global extent, and with such severity, that we appear to have moved past the point of semantic ambiguity; the disease has taken on pandemic proportions.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
A Guide to Coronavirus-Related Words
Deciphering the terminology you're likely to hear
COVID-19
COVID-19 is“a mild to severe respiratory illness that is caused by a coronavirus,”
one that is characterized especially by fever, cough, and shortness of breath and may progress to pneumonia and respiratory failure.
The name is an odd sort of acronym, insofar as it is formed from portions of two distinct words (COronaVIrus & Disease) and the latter portion of a date (the 19 from 2019).
COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
Social distance
Social distance has been in use since the early 19th century,
initially with the meaning of
“the degree of acceptance or rejection of social interaction between individuals and especially those belonging to different social groups
(such as those based on race, ethnicity, class, or gender).”
Here indeed they possess an advantage which they have not with respect to men: they are less separated by social distance. — Christian Observer (Boston, MA), May 1824
In modern use the term is more often encountered with the meaning of “the avoidance of close contact with other people during the outbreak of a contagious disease in order to minimize exposure and reduce the transmission of infection.”
The practice of maintaining a greater thanusual physical distance from other people is referred to as social distancing, in use since 2003;
the verb is socially distance.
Fomite
Fomite (which rhymes with ‘toe blight’)
is “an object (such as a dish or a doorknob)
that may be contaminated with infectious organisms
and serve in their transmission.”
While this word is infrequently encountered,
there has been considerable talk of late about possible surfaces and objects which might harbor infectious substances,
and it maywell be useful to have this specific word at hand.
Ten fomites (doorknobs and toilet seats) were sampled during July 21-22 before any cleaning took place by facilities management personnel. —Sonia Fankem, et al, Journal of Environmental Health, Apr. 2014
Epidemic & Pandemic & Outbreak
An outbreak is“a sudden rise in the incidence of a disease”;
an epidemic is“an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time”;
a pandemic is“an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population.” An outbreak may become an epidemic if it spreads enough,
as an epidemic maylikewise become a pandemic.
The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is a matter of degree, and not all the dates listed by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe can be said to be those of pandemics. — David Lyons and Gillian Murphy, Nature, 1 Mar. 1990
Community spread & Contact tracing
Community spread is “the spread of a contagious disease withina community."
It also has the specific meaning of
“the spread of a contagious disease toindividuals in a particular geographic location who have no known contact with other infected individuals or who have not recently traveled to an area where the disease has any documented cases.”
Prevention of community spread (and reintroduction of undiagnosed infectious TB patients into correctional facilities) requires the rapid investigation of contacts in the facility. —Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 5 Feb. 1999
“the practice of identifying and monitoring individuals who may have had contact with an infectious person as a means of controlling the spread of a communicable disease.”
State laws require that all cases treated by private physicians be reported to the public health departement. Yet, some doctors feel this would be violating their professional code of ethics, for if turning over to health authorities the patient is interviewed and required to give names of all his own sex contacts, as well as names of friends he suspects mght be infected. This is known as “contact tracing” and all information is kept in strictest confidence. —Norma Lee Browning, Chicago Daily Tribune, 19 June 1960
Martial law
Martial law is
“the law administered by military forces that is invoked by a government in an emergency when the civilian law enforcement agencies are unable to maintain public order and safety.”
We occasionally see the term misspelledas marshal law,
probably due to the fact that marshal has a number of meanings dealing with the military (“a general officer of the highest military rank”) and the enforcement of laws (“an officer having charge of prisoners”).
The martial portion of martial law comes from the Latin word martalis, meaning “of Mars” (referring to the Roman god of war).
To self-quarantine is
“to refrain from any contact with otherindividuals for a period of time (such as two weeks) during the outbreak of a contagious disease usually by remaining in one's home and limiting contact with family members.”
The verb is fairly recent, showing evidence of use only within the past 20 years or so. The noun has been in occasional use prior to this in the 20th century.
Dr. Banks said further that the Federal authority invested in him in the matter of quarantine had not yet been exerted to its fullest, but that if persons continued to disregard his advice about self-quarantine, he would bring into service all of the power of compulsion at his command. — The New York Times, 10 Aug. 1916 (p. 1)
Quarantine is
currently most often found with the meaning of
“a restraint upon the activities or communication ofpersons or the transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of disease or pests.”
The word has a number of other meanings, botharchaic and current, many of which have to do with a period of 40 days
(it may be traced back to the Latin word quadraginta, meaning “forty”), including a 40 day period during which a widow was permitted by law to remain in her deceased husband's principal home without having to pay rent to his heirs, a period of 40 days set aside for penance or fasting (in early Christian church use), or a general period of 40 days set aside for a variety of uses.
One grand inconvenience attended on this army of Pilgrimes: For when their quarantine, or fourty dayes service, was expited, (the term the Pope set them to merit Paradise in) they would not stay one whit longer. — Thomas Fuller, The historie of the holy warre, 1647
Index Case
An index case is
“the first documented case of an infectious disease or genetically transmitted condition or mutation in apopulation, region, or family.”
It may also, however, refer to an individual who has a disease, condition, or mutation that is the first one identified in a population.
This second sense is synonymous with index patient.
A related term is patient zero, “a person identified as the first to become infected withan illness or disease in an outbreak.”
Patient zero is especially used to refer to a person documented as being the first known case of a communicable disease in a particular population or region.
Super Spreader
A super-spreader (also written as superspreader) is
“an individual who is highly contagious and capable of transmitting a communicable disease to an unusually large number of uninfected individuals.”
The term for the spread of disease by super-spreaders is super-spreading.
In the Maine case, however, neither AIDS nor poverty was thought to be a factor. Dr. Ban Mishu of Vanderbilt University, who investigated the outbreak, said it began in 1989 with one "super spreader," a man who was unknowingly infected with the bacteria in his lungs and throat. —The Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), 14 Oct. 1992
According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Super-spreading is thus partly due to super-spreaders, but modest gains are expected from targeting super-spreaders.” —Zika & Mosquito Week, 17 Sept. 2019
Isolation & Self-isolation
Isolation ultimately derives from the Latin word insula, meaning “island.” The word’s path from Latin to English begins with the Italian derivative of insula, isolato (“isolated”), that became the French word isolé, and then moved into English.
Early uses of the term in English were spelled in the French manner with a conventional English modifier ending d as isolé’d before it settled as the spelling isolated.
The literal etymological meaning of the word isolated is islanded.
(The first hospitals built in Italy to protect the general population from the sick in the 14th century were located on an island.)
Given its Classical roots, isolated is a relatively new word in English, only dating to the late 1700s. A verb was subsequently coined to correspond to this adjective, which is how we got isolate inEnglish through the process of back-formation.
We date self-isolation to 1834 and a passage from The Metropolitan Magazine. In contrastto the use of the term in the context of today’s health crisis, this first known use of the term seems to make reference to being unaware of the events of the world around us:
Few, indeed, are they whose relations with actual life are compatible with a complete self-isolation from the interests and the passions fluctuating around them, and who can so effectually detachthemselves from the tumultuous current of events which every day swells in its rapid course to the silent gulf of the past time.
Contagious & Infectious
Contagious and infectious often cause confusion,
as the words overlap in significant ways, yet alsohave meanings which are in some ways distinct.
Contagious is “transmissible by direct or indirect contact with an infected person,”
and infectious is “producing or capable of producing infection” and “containing pathogenic agents which may be transmitted.”
Both infectious and contagious diseases are caused by bacteria and viruses;
they differ in that contagious diseases may be spread by direct or indirect contact.
An ailment such as food poisoning is infectious, it is capable of producing infection, but it is not contagious.
The coronavirus,on the other hand, is both contagious and _infectious.
Anything that is contagious is automatically also infectious,
but the reverse is not true.
Both words are frequently used in a figurative manner.
Grace’s simple, light-hearted gayety was infectious, and Warren found the grave dignity of the successful graduate rapidly disappearing. — A Lady, Juno Clifford, 1856
She talked, sang, and recited—she exerted all the wit and vivacity of which she was mistress—she employed powers of humour which she herself had scarcely been conscious of possessing. Her gaiety soon became contagious. — Mary Brunton, Self-Control, 1811
Virus
Virus has been used to describe something unwelcome for hundreds of years before it became a term for
‘the reason your computer is doing that funny thing that really isn’t funny at all.’
The word comes from classical Latin in which it referred a number of things which might make one wish to wash their hands (venom, pus, and poisonous emanations).
The biological sense we all know and fear today
(“any of a large group of submicroscopic infectious agents that are usually regarded as nonliving extremely complex molecules, that typically contain a protein coat surrounding an RNA or DNA core of genetic material but no semipermeable membrane, that are capable of growth and multiplication only in living cells, and that cause various important diseases in humans, animals, and plants”)
began being used around the beginning of the 20th century.
Prior to this virus had such meanings as
“venom emitted by a poisonous animal,” and
“a morbid corrupting quality in intellectual or moral conditions.”
I shall therefore, in the following remarks on this abominable libel, and in extracting and expelling the virus of it, substitute the word Protestant and Romanist for the words Colonist and Native. — Patrick Duigenan, A fair representation of the present political state of Ireland, 1800
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
Pandemic
A pandemic disease is one prevalent
throughout a country, a continent, or the entire world.
Pandemic suggests “universal,” “wide spread,” and “general”:
“Fear of atomic warfare is pandemic.
