Coronavirus: What's The Difference Between Pandemic And Epidemic?
BOSTON (CBS) – The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic on Wednesday.
The word can cause panic, but what is a pandemic really?
"That is one reason we haven't been using the term that much," said WBZ-TV's Dr. Mallika Marshall. "Because it does make people nervous and it is scary, but it is really just a term used to describe the extent of disease spread."
An epidemic is an outbreak that has become widespread in a particular region or country.
A pandemic is more widespread than an epidemic – across many countries or continents – and usually involves a large number of people.
The last pandemic was the swine flu in 2009.
"Some have been calling this coronavirus a pandemic, but the World Health Organization has been hesitant to do so, probably because they wanted to see if it could be better contained, they didn't want to freak people out," Marshall said. " It should be a wake-up call to all countries, including the United States, that we need to step up containment efforts.
That said, Dr. Marshall said there is no reason for people to panic.