What is a coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which may cause illness in animals or humans. In humans, several coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered coronavirus causes Coronavirus disease Covid-19.
What is a pandemic?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines a pandemic as “an outbreak of a new pathogen that spreads easily from person to person across the globe.” According to A Dictionary of Epidemiology, the standard reference for epidemiologists, a pandemic is “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people.”
simply put the pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new infractions diseases. When new Diseases Spread over a vast geographical area covering several countries and most people do not have immunity against it, the outbreak is turned a pandemic. The word is from the Greek pan’meaning all and demos meaning people. It stretches over a larger area, infects more people and causes more deaths than an epidemic. But the term refers to the spread of disease, not its potency or deadliness. There is no fixed number of cases or deaths that determine when an outbreak becomes a pandemic. It, however, implies a higher level of concern than an epidemic.
What is an endemic?
The term endemic refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area. It is an outbreak that occurs at a predictable rate in a certain area or among a set population. Chickenpox is classed as an endemic as it occurs at a high but predictable rate among youngsters. Endemics remain at a steady-state, but do not disappear from a population. Hyperendemic refers to the persistent, higher levels of disease prevalence in a particular place.
What is an epidemic?
An epidemic will see a disease rapidly spread among a large number of people in a given population. During an epidemic the disease will normally spread in two weeks Or less. Epidemics may be the consequence of disasters of another kind, such as tropical storms, floods, earthquakes and droughts. There have been 14 epidemics since 2010, including the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which killed 11,300 people between 2013 and 2016. In 2003, the SARS outbreak was classed as an epidemic–it killed nearly 800 people.
10 worst pandemics in human history
1.HIV/AIDS pandemic (at its peak, 200 1-12)
- Cause: HIV/AIDS
- Death toll: 36 million
2. Flu pandemic ( 1968)
- Cause: Influenza
- Death toll: 1 million
3.Asian flu (1956-58)
- Cause: Influenza
- Death toll: 2 million
4. Flu pandemic (1918]
- Cause: Influenza
- Death toll: 20-50 million
5. Sixth Cholera pandemic (1910-1911)
- Cause: Cholera
- Death toll: 800, 000+
6. Flu pandemic ( 1889-1990)
- Cause: Influenza
- Death toll: 1 million
7.Third Cholera pandemic ( 1852-1860)
- Cause: Cholera
- Death tol: 1 million
8. The Black Death (1346-1353)
- From 1346 to 1353,
- Cause: Bubonic plague
- Death toll: 75-200 million
9. Plague of Justinian (541-542)
- Death toll: 25 million
- Cause: Bubonic Plague
10.Antonine Plague ( 165AD)
- Cause: Unknown
- Death toll: 5 million