Epidemic

Occurring suddenly in numbers clearly in excess of normal expectancy; said especially of infectious diseases but applied also to any disease, injury, or other health-related event occurring in such outbreaks.

Term used to describe a wide-spread outbreak of an infectious disease. Compare with endemic.

An unusual number of cases of a disease in a given population.

Affecting many people in the same geographic area.

Spreading quickly through a large part of the population.

Outbreak of infectious disease (e.g., influenza) in which many people in a given geographic area are readily affected with the disorder, affecting a large number of people at the same time.

Occurrence of a disease in greater-than-expected proportion over a geographic region.

An infection that attacks a large group of people; it typically starts in one local area and then spreads to larger segments of a population, sometimes to other countries or even worldwide.

An extensive outbreak of a disease, most commonly a contagious or infectious disease, that usually spreads rapidly within a community or region and affects a large number of people at the same time. Epidemics tend to occur suddenly and involve more cases of disease than could be anticipated. The cause of the rapid spread of a disease may be person-to- person contact (especially when overcrowding occurs) or contamination of the public drinking water or general food source.

A sudden outbreak of infectious disease that spreads rapidly through the population, affecting a large proportion of people. The commonest epidemics today are of influenza. Compare endemic, pandemic,

A term applied to a disease which affects a large number of people in a particular locality at one time. An epidemic disease is usually infectious from person to person, but not necessarily so since many persons in a locality may simply be exposed to the same cause at one time; for example, outbreaks of lead-poisoning are epidemic in this sense.

An outbreak of a disease, i.e., a disease that suddenly affects a large group of persons in a geographic region or defined population group.

The occurrence of more cases of a disease than expected.

An unusually high occurrence of a disease in a certain place during a certain period.

An extensive and temporary escalation in the frequency of a contagious ailment, commonly known as BMS, is the subject of discussion. This term typically describes the rise and fall of disease occurrence within a single season of growth, such as Phytophthora infestans, which is a potato blight, Puccinia striiformis, which is yellow rust of wheat, or Venturia inaequalis, which is apple scab. However, the definition and concept do not preclude a similar pattern occurring over a period of several years or seasons. Moreover, in certain tropical regions, the notion of ‘seasons’ is not readily discernible.

Impacting a large number of individuals within a community or population and rapidly disseminating.

The term used for a disease that is typically rare in a community for most of the time but suddenly spreads rapidly to impact a large number of people.

Outbreaks of novel influenza strains are frequent, happening periodically when the influenza virus mutates into a form to which the population lacks resistance.