epidemic

Examples of epidemic in the following topics:

• Smallpox

  • Smallpox broke out in army camps in 1775, during an epidemic that lasted for most of the war.
  • The epidemic was not limited to the colonies on the Eastern seaboard, nor to the areas affected by hostilities.
  • The epidemic then spread through the Great Plains, likely due to the travels of the Shoshone Indian tribes.
  • A new epidemic of smallpox would ravage North America during the Revolutionary War.
  • Discuss the impact of the smallpox epidemic during the American Revolution

• Disease Reservoirs and Epidemics

  • Epidemiologists often consider the term outbreak to be synonymous to epidemic, but the general public typically perceives outbreaks to be more local and less serious than epidemics.
  • The declaration of an epidemic usually requires a good understanding of a baseline rate of incidence.
  • Many epidemics will have characteristics of both common source and propagated outbreaks.
  • Certain epidemics occur at certain seasons: for example, whooping-cough occurs in spring, whereas measles produces two epidemics - as a rule, one in winter and one in March.
  • There is another variation, both as regards the number of persons affected and the number who die in successive epidemics: the severity of successive epidemics rises and falls over periods of five or ten years.

• Current Epidemics

  • An epidemic occurs when new cases of a disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed expectations.
  • Epidemiologists often consider the term outbreak to be synonymous to epidemic, but the general public typically perceives outbreaks to be more local and less serious than epidemics.
  • An epidemic may be restricted to one location; however, if it spreads to other countries or continents and affects a substantial number of people, it may be termed a pandemic.
  • The declaration of an epidemic usually requires a good understanding of a baseline rate of incidence; epidemics for certain diseases, such as influenza, are defined as reaching some defined increase in incidence above this baseline.
  • A few cases of a very rare disease may be classified as an epidemic, while many cases of a common disease (such as the common cold) would not.

• Poliomyelitis

  • Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the late 19th century, polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century.
  • Polio epidemics have crippled thousands of people, mostly young children; the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history.
  • Polio had existed for thousands of years quietly as an endemic pathogen until the 1880s, when major epidemics began to occur in Europe; soon after, widespread epidemics appeared in the United States.
  • By 1910, much of the world experienced a dramatic increase in polio cases and epidemics became regular events, primarily in cities during the summer months.
  • These epidemics—which left thousands of children and adults paralyzed—provided the impetus for a "Great Race" towards the development of a vaccine.

• Disease in the New World

  • Rampant epidemic disease, to which the natives had no prior exposure or resistance, was one of the main causes of the massive population decline of the indigenous populations of the Americas.
  • The scope of the epidemics over the years was tremendous, killing millions of people—possibly in excess of 90% of the population in the hardest hit areas.
  • After the epidemics had already killed massive numbers of indigenous Americans, many newer European immigrants assumed that there had always been relatively few indigenous peoples.
  • The diseases brought to the New World proved to be exceptionally deadly to the indigenous populations, and the epidemics had very different effects in different regions of the Americas.
  • While epidemic disease was by far the leading cause of the population decline of the American indigenous peoples after 1492, there were other contributing factors--all of them related to European contact and colonization.

• Development of New Vaccines

  • New vaccines are being developed to control recent infectious disease epidemics and cancers.
  • In addition to these efforts against global diseases, progress is being made on a vaccine for the regional menace posed by meningococcal meningitis serogroup A, which causes frequent epidemics and high death rates and disability in African countries south of the Sahara.

• History of Epidemiology

  • The distinction between "epidemic" and "endemic" was first drawn by Hippocrates, to distinguish between diseases that are "visited upon" a population (epidemic) from those that "reside within" a population (endemic).
  • The term "epidemiology" appears to have first been used to describe the study of epidemics in 1802 by the Spanish physician Joaquín de Villalba in Epidemiología Española.
  • John Snow is famous for his investigations into the causes of the 19th century cholera epidemics, and is also known as the father of (modern) epidemiology.
  • His identification of the Broad Street pump as the cause of the Soho epidemic is considered the classic example of epidemiology.
  • John Snow (1813-1858), a British physician who is one of the founders of medical epidemiology, showing cases of cholera in the London epidemics of 1854, clustered around the locations of water pumps.

• The Poor, the Homeless, and the Victims of AIDS

  • President Reagan has been criticized for his political responses to poverty, homelessness, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic.
  • Perhaps the greatest criticism surrounds Reagan's silence about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
  • Everett Koop, from speaking out about the epidemic.
  • When, in 1986, Reagan was highly encouraged by many other public officials to authorize Koop to issue a report on the epidemic, he expected it to be in line with conservative policies; instead, Koop's Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome greatly emphasized the importance of a comprehensive AIDS education strategy, including widespread distribution of condoms, and rejected mandatory testing.
  • Reclaimed by gay activists in New York as a symbol of resistance and solidarity during the 1970s, it was further transformed as a symbol of governmental inaction in the face of the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s.

• The Vocabulary Epidemiology

  • The distinction between "epidemic" and "endemic" was first drawn by Hippocrates, to distinguish between diseases that are "visited upon" a population (epidemic) from those that "reside within" a population (endemic).
  • A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that has spread through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide.
  • The term epidemiology is now widely applied to cover the description and causation of not only epidemic disease, but of disease in general, and even many non-disease health-related conditions, such as high blood pressure and obesity.
  • Compare and contrast the following concepts: epidemic, endemic, pandemic; incidence vs prevalence; morbidity vs mortality; incubation, latency, acute, decline and convalescent periods

• African Trypanosomiasis

  • Four major epidemics have occurred in recent history: one from 1896-1906, primarily in Uganda and the Congo Basin, two epidemics in 1920 and 1970 in several African countries, and a recent 2008 epidemic in Uganda.