Explaining Important Terminology Related to COVID-19

Outbreak/Epidemic/Pandemic

An outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease, whether it be a small, localized group or thousands of people across an entire continent. COVID-19 qualifies as an outbreak, because there has been a sudden increase of cases.

An epidemic is an outbreak of an infection or other disease that attacks many individuals at about the same time and may spread through one or several communities or regions. COVID-19 is an epidemic in parts of China, but not currently an epidemic in America.

When an epidemic occurs world-wide it is a pandemic. COVID-19 is not currently a pandemic.

Isolation/Quarantine

Isolation occurs in a clinical setting when the providers are concerned a symptomatic patient (someone who is already sick) may have a contagious illness. They create an environment for that patient and restrictions to prevent the spread. This always involves someone with a suspected or known specific illness.

Quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of asymptomatic (not yet sick) individuals who may have been exposed to a communicable disease. This happens before they show symptoms to see if they become ill. Quarantine typically lasts for the incubation period of the suspected illness whether the quarantined individual is sick or not.

Coronavirus/COVID-19/SARS

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause the common cold and other illnesses.

COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus that is more virulent, seems to be highly contagious, and because it is new, the human population lacks specific immunity. COVID-19 is similar to SARS in that it is a new coronavirus that spreads from animals to humans and then human to human. COVID-19 seems to be more easily spread from human to human than SARS.

SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. SARS was first recognized by the World Health Organization in February of 2003.