The epidemic can be defined as the onset of a disease in an area with a higher than expected number of cases. Epidemics can be characterized as sudden-onset diseases that spread rapidly to the greatest number of people.
To control the outbreak of an infectious disease, it is important that cases are reported to the health agency so that steps can be taken to prevent the disease from spreading elsewhere. Some of the strategies that can be adopted to contain an epidemic are to avoid frequent travel and closed environments with a higher concentration of people, such as shopping malls, cinemas and restaurants.
- Epidemics are complicated when the disease becomes uncontrollable.
- Spreading to other places or countries by travel and air transport or lack of hygiene.
- Becoming known as a pandemic.
- Considered more severe because of the ease and speed of dissemination.
The best way to fight an epidemic is to try to contain the virus and prevent it from spreading to others. Therefore, recommendations from health facilities, which may vary by disease and form of transmission, should be followed.
However, the main actions to be performed are
In addition, in order not to contract the disease during an epidemic, it is important to avoid unnecessary travel to the hospital, health service, emergency department or pharmacy, as well as to be vaccinated against the disease, if necessary. However, some diseases, such as Ebola or Cholera, do not have vaccines that can prevent disease development and, in such cases, preventing infection is the best way to prevent an epidemic. Learn how to avoid infectious diseases.
During an epidemic, quarantine is important to prevent the disease from spreading and reaching more people, causing a pandemic. Quarantine is a public health measure in which healthy people who may have been exposed to the outbreak-related infectious agent are separated and monitored to see if the disease is developing.
Many people who live in the place considered the center of the epidemic, for example, can carry the infectious agent and not develop the disease, but they can easily transmit the infectious agent to others, spreading the disease. Find out how long quarantine lasts and how it develops.
Also see what to eat at 40 so you don’t gain weight
Endemic, epidemic and pandemic are terms that describe the epidemiological situation of a given disease in a region or the world. The term endemic refers to the frequency of a given disease and generally describes a disease that is limited to a single region and is influenced by climatic, social, hygienic and biological factors. Endemic diseases are generally seasonal, meaning their frequency may vary depending on the time of year. Understand what is endemic and what are the main endemic diseases.
On the other hand, epidemic diseases are the ones that reach the highest proportion and spread rapidly at any time of the year. When an epidemic disease reaches other continents, it becomes a pandemic, where the infectious disease spreads uncontrollably in several places, with difficult control.
Understand these concepts better in the following video: