Epidemics

Epidemic

noun

  1. a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

    "a flu epidemic"

adjective

  1. (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.

Pandemic

What actually is a virus?

  • microscopic parasites
  • much smaller than bacteria
  • lack the capacity to thrive and reproduce outside of a host body.

Coronavirus - Covid-19

Get their name from spiky projections on their outer surfaces

Corona in Latin means crown

Coronavirus - Covid-19

  • spike proteins extend from within the core

 

  • the virus latches on to the vulnerable cells
  • Virus hijacks cell

 

  • Cell becomes factory to create reproduce viruses

Where do viruses come from?

HIV

SARS

Ebola

Where do viruses come from?

  • Sells live animals including bats. (to eat 🤢 )
  • linked to illegally traded wildlife at Wuhan's seafood market

However, the exact source of the outbreak has not been identified.

How do you get infected?

  • respiratory droplets
  • coughing or sneezing
  • droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose.

Why China?

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Animal Contact

Dense Urban Populations

"Super Spreaders"

"Super spreaders" are a big contributor to an epidemic

 

Transmit more than the usual

Come into contact with far more people (Job, location etc)

 

 

Why Do Some People Spread More?

  • Kids
  • "Super Shedders"
  • Hospitals

What happens when you catch it?

Governments - Preventing Spread

  • Quarantine
  • Thermal Scanners
  • Can't detect people who are infected but haven't got a fever yet

Stages of an epidemic

WHO keeps track of all identified viruses, animal or human, through a set of phases or stages.

 

Phase 1: Animals Only

 

Phase 2: Human Infected from Animals

Stages of an epidemic

Phase 3: Small clusters of human beings have contracted the virus in one community.

 

Phase 4: Human-to-human and animal-to-human virus transmission are causing outbreaks in many communities

Stages of an epidemic

 

 

Phase 5: Infection in two countries - Governments must be ready to implement their pandemic mitigation plans.

 

Phase 6: Global Pandemic. Illness is widespread and every governments top priority is curtailing the spread of the disease.

Stages of an epidemic

 

Post-Pandemic: After the increase in activity, the disease-spreading activity will begin to wane. The key at this point is to be prepared to try to prevent a second wave.

Should I be worried?

 

  • Elderly, Pre-existing medical conditions
  • The death rate in total is around 2%
  • People could recover
  • The numbers are starting to stabilise, especially outside of China

When to worry

  • The source is not found. This makes vaccines difficult.
  • The virus becomes unstable and starts to mutate.

Thanks

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