Question

What are the characteristics that distinguish pandemic disease from epidemic disease? Name some examples of notorious pandemics that occurred in history. Why did the “Spanish Flu” of 1918 qualify as a pandemic? In giving your answer, be sure to distinguish among the terms epidemic, pandemic, and endemic.

Answer 1

-- Pandemic is a disease being spread of a disease over large areas,like across continents causing massive death rates across the world. It's basically epidemic but in larger area. . Ex- Spanish fly if 1918.

Epidemic is the outbreak or spread of disease only but within a community or few communities within at the same time .Ex- plague

Endemics is when a disease is always present lowkey in a geographical area. Always .like malaria in parts of Africa.

-- examples if pandemics -

1. Spanish influenza in 1918.

2. Asian influenza in 1957

3. Hong Kong influenza in 1968.

-- the virus causing Spanish fly was H1N1 originated from birds as a result we humans hd no antibody against it. When it hits the world,  about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population were infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide qualifying it to be a pandemic.