Pandemics and epidemics are terms related to the outbreak of any disease on a large
scale, anywhere in the world. Any society, community or locality can be affected by the outbreak of a disease at a particular time, which may cause death or result in a large population of people becoming critically ill. Any outbreak of a disease can last from days and even remain for years. This will depend on the intensity, kind of disease and extent of the outbreak. A disease of such nature, which affects a lot of people simultaneously, can be considered contagious. It might also be a new kind of disease, which might be previously unknown to the population it is affecting. An epidemic is the spread of an infectious and contagious disease that spreads quickly amongst many people. However, an epidemic affects the people of a certain geographical location and is restricted to the community or locality in which the disease occurs. For example, the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003 (SARS) was an epidemic which occurred in specific regions and took many lives (Torrey, 2016). When SARS was affecting the population of USA, it was regarded an epidemic. Recently, Ebola has been a major epidemic in the regions of West Africa. Since the disease outbreak has been restricted to the region, it is known as an epidemic, although it did cause a lot of death and the disease has been infectious.
A pandemic, on the other hand, is also the spread of an infectious disease, however, pandemics happen to affect worldwide communities and populations, and they occur on a much larger scale as compared to epidemics (Torrey, 2016). For instance, if SARS would spread to a majority of the countries of the world and infect or kill many people, then it would be regarded as a pandemic. There have been many cases of pandemics in the world such as the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak which affected one billion of the world’s population. Similarly, the Black Death or the Plague has been a pandemic which has been affecting the major populations of the world since centuries. The earliest outbreaks of the plague have been recorded since the 14th century, and since then it has spread out periodically until the bubonic plague in 1855. Overall, the plague has killed about 75 million people on a stretch of three continents (Santoso, 2009).
Hence what makes epidemics and pandemics similar is the fact that they begin with the course of affecting a large population at the same time, with the outbreak of an infectious disease. However, epidemics remain restricted to one population, which is either because of the nature of the disease or its containment. Pandemics are spread all around the globe because of the nature of the disease and its method of the outbreak. For instance, the Spanish influenza was effective to spread like a pandemic because it occurred during WWI and many injured people were affected in large numbers, which created the perfect environment for the virus to spread (Torrey, 2016). Pandemics have the capacity to spread much faster, especially if they are related to bacterial or viral nature of the disease which can be spread by coughing or any case of a droplet infection. With the amount of traveling and intermixing of people of various countries in the present day, it is very easy for the pandemic to spread and affect others globally. People from different countries can be the carriers of various diseases, and they might go to work, meet others and simply exist in a different environment and become the reason for the outbreak of a disease.
References
Santoso, A. (2009, April 27). 5 deadliest Pandemics in history. Retrieved January 19, 2017,
Torrey, T. (2016, May 5). Learn the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic. Retrieved
