Talk:Epidemic
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Definition
Somebody needs to add what % of a population must be affected to constitute an epedemic... 11:15, 8 Mar 2004 207.4.4.194 (?)
- Not true. "An epidemic is the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behaviour, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy (Last, 1995). The definition is context sensitive. What is "clearly in excess" in one place and time period, may not be so in another context. An annual incidence of 2 million episodes of malaria may be 'expected' for India but if this were to occur in England, it would certainly be an outbreak! Even one case of small pox today anywhere in the world (except due to accidental exposure in the labs which still store the virus) will be considered an outbreak because none is expected. The common misconceptions about outbreaks are that it havens only with infectious diseases, epidemics have to be dramatic and sudden, and epidemics have to involve many people. None of these are necessarily true." EPIDEMIOLOGY Epidemic investigation http://www.sunmed.org/Epidemicinvestigation.html References & further reading 1. Last JM (Ed. ). A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press, 1995. Petersam 04:29, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
