Whats the difference??

[Dadie]

Whats the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic?
I thought a pandemic was when an epidemic jumped continents
and a epidemic was when more cases of a "catching" disease occurs than is expected.

[Whitewater]

Hi Dadie, I always knew that an epidemic was something that spread locally, but your question got me curious so I looked both words up in the Oxford dictionary.

Epidemic:-prevalent among a community at a particular time.
Pandemic:- prevalent over a whole region or the world.

So now we know.

[Kodiak]

An Epidemic - a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time (especially of medicine) of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population .

A Pandemic - an epidemic that is geographically widespread; occurring throughout a region or even throughout the world existing everywhere.

[Ricco]

Along these lines... at a recent INSET day the point was made that in 5 years time the top 10 jobs would be ones that were obscure or not yet invented. The guy behind me wondered what they might be so I piped up with arid soil horticulture and pandemic medicine. :lol:

[gleeber]

The world is so small these days that any epidemic could have the potential to become a pandemic. If something really nasty was to come along I would have no faith in the bunch ive seen prying for position on the telly in their attempts to say they have everything under control. It's scary really.