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近日，由於新冠肺炎確診病例在國際上急劇增加，epidemic和pandemic這兩個詞頻頻在外媒報導中出現，這兩個詞到底有什麼區別？到底什麼時候用epidemic，什麼時候用pandemic呢？
With the constant media coverage of diseases like the zika virus, ebola, H1N1 and the yearly flu, we keep hearing about the threat of epidemics and pandemics, but what do these really mean when it comes to disease emergence and spread?
The baseline or endemic level of a disease, is the amount that is usually present in a given community.
An epidemic is a drastic increase in the number of people infected with that disease, in that same community.
A pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread to several countries or continents, affecting a large number of people. So what can cause an epidemic?
Epidemics can be caused by a couple different factors including:
An increase in the amount of a disease or its virulence
Its appearance in a new location
An enhanced mode of transmission
A change in the susceptibility of the host to being infected and
Increased host exposure or a new method of host infection
3 common ways epidemics can be spread are:
From a common-source, where a group of people are all exposed to an infectious agent or toxin from the same source
By propagated outbreak, with transmission from one person to another Or
Using a vector or carrier (like mosquitoes) that interact with humans and transmits the disease
To classify the spread of disease as a pandemic, there need to be community level outbreak epidemics in at least one other country in a different world health organization defined region, which means the disease is starting to spread around the world.
By this time the respective governments of outbreak-stricken countries should have taken action to halt disease progression and implement national health strategies. So next time you hear about epidemics and pandemics on the news, you don’t need to prepare to flee to Antarctica. Take some time to learn more about the disease, how it’s spread and where it is prevalent, to keep yourself safe. For more information please visit the WHO’s website at www.who.int
Pandemic vs. Epidemic
As the new coronavirus continues to spread around the world, the words epidemic and pandemic are showing up in news reports more often than they usually do. While the terms are closely related, they don’t refer to the same thing.
新冠病毒持續在全球傳播之際，epidemic和pandemic這兩個詞比往常更頻繁地在新聞報導中出現。儘管這兩個詞很相近，但二者指的不是同一種東西。
As the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) explains on its website, 「an epidemic occurs when an infectious disease spreads rapidly to many people.」 Usually, what precedes an epidemic is an outbreak, or 「a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease.」 An outbreak can affect a single community or several countries, but it’s on a much smaller scale than an epidemic.
感染控制和流行病學專業人員協會在網站上解釋道：「當一種傳染性疾病迅速傳播給許多人時，就被稱為epidemic。」通常，epidemic發生之前會有outbreak(疾病爆發)，即「某種疾病案例的突然增加」。Outbreak可能影響到單個社區或幾個國家，但規模比epidemic小得多。
If an epidemic can’t be contained and keeps expanding its reach, public health officials might start calling it a pandemic, which means it’s affected enough people in different areas of the world to be considered a global outbreak. In short, a pandemic is a worldwide epidemic. It infects more people, causes more deaths, and can also have widespread social and economicrepercussions. The spread of the Spanish influenza from 1918 to 1919, which killed between 20 and 40 million people around the world, was a pandemic; more recently, the H1N1 influenza created a pandemic in 2009.
如果一場epidemic不能被控制住，還在不斷蔓延，公共衛生官員可能就要開始稱之為pandemic，意思是這場流行病已經影響到世界不同地區足夠多的人，到了全球性爆發的程度。簡而言之，pandemic就是全球性的流行病。Pandemic感染的人更多，導致的死亡人數更多，還可能對社會和經濟造成廣泛的影響。1918年到1919年的西班牙流感在全世界導致2000萬至4000萬人喪生，這種流行病屬於pandemic;離現在更近的2009年的甲型流感也是pandemic。
Here’s where it gets a little tricky: There’s no cut-and-dried classification system for outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics.
但是微妙之處在於，outbreak、epidemic和pandemic三者之間沒有既成的區分體系。
The WHO warned on Monday against using the term "pandemic" to describe the current outbreak.
世界衛生組織2月24日曾警告稱，本次新冠肺炎疫情不能用pandemic來形容。
"It really is borderline semantics, to be honest with you,」 Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN earlier this month. 「I think you could have people arguing each end of it. Pandemics mean different things to different people.」
美國國家過敏和傳染病研究所的所長安東尼·福奇本月早些時候告訴CNN說：「老實說，這確實是邊界語義學。我想你會聽到人們各執一詞。不同的人對pandemic有不同的理解。」
epidemic，傳染病，流行病。這個詞是典型的詞根組合。epi其實大家都很熟悉，只是單看這三個字母好像不認識，看看這個組合，S1EI，第一季第一集，想起來了嗎，美劇的分集。S是season，季節，所以我們說起來美劇都是第幾季，就是這個季節的單詞，這個詞很簡單是個初中詞不多講了，再看E是什麼呢，是episode，意思是第幾集，更準確的意思是一個事件，一節，一集。其實epi是個表示位置關係的詞根，意思是在某些東西之間。因為sode是進入的意思，這個不展開講，從一個章節進入另一個章節，古時候沒有電視只有小說，所以三節之間的第二節就是兩節之間，由第一節到第三節要進入第二節，大致上可以這麼理解。而demic呢，它其實是人民的意思。在五四運動的時候，當時陳獨秀所說的「德先生」和「賽先生」，全稱應該是「德謨克拉西先生」和「賽因斯先生」，分別對應的兩個單詞就是democracy和science，一個民*主，一個是科學。而democracy的詞源就是demos，是個希臘詞，就是人民的意思，而demic也是一個詞源，表示人民的詞根。那麼epi和demic合起來就是在人民之間的，表示形容詞就是流行的，而表示名詞的時候就是傳染病，流行病的意思，他們就是在人民之間傳播的。
pandemic，大流行病。和流行病比起來，只有前綴不同，pan是啥意思呢？表示廣泛的意思，在英語詞彙裡其實用的不多，所以不用記，可以用諧音記，盤，盤子不大能裝下菜嗎？所以這個詞其實是epidemic的升級版，更大範圍的流行病。
pestilence，plague，瘟疫。沒錯，這兩個詞都表示瘟疫，而且大家也沒有必要硬要區分他們的差異，都可以用。先說第一個詞，pestilence，pest是害蟲的意思，而ence是名詞後綴，瘟疫一般都是由害蟲引起的，比如鼠疫就是由老鼠傳播的，這樣組合就起來就是瘟疫的意思。再看plague，pla這個詞根有兩個主要意思，一個是我們常見的比如plane這種，表示平的，再有就是它在這裡的意思了，表示打擊，比如complain，抱怨，就是對別人的一種打擊。而瘟疫也是一種打擊，對人類的打擊。
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