(Daily News Scan - DNS English) What is an Endemic Disease?
THE Novel Corona virus, a few months back was declared as pandemic. Now, the World Health Organisation has said that like HIV, the novel coronavirus could become endemic and “may never go away”. Not only this, the WHO has also urged everyone to make massive efforts to contain the spread of this virus.
In this DNS we will know what is endemic and when a disease is declared to endemic.
The corona virus is no sooner going to leave our lives. Now the WHO is also recommending us to make efforts to contain the spread of virus. According to the WHO this virus may become an endemic. As per the WHO emergencies director even if a vaccine is available or found, coping with the disease would require a “massive effort”. There are trials and efforts both going on to develop vaccine but the experts are unsure about the effectiveness of the vaccines against the coronavirus. To eliminate this virus from our world, the vaccine for this needs to be highly effective and available for all.
Let us understand about an endemic disease.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a disease is endemic when its presence or usual prevalence in the population is constant. Some disease like malaria and chicken pox fall in the endemic category as there are predictable number of cases every year in certain parts of the world.
The dictionary of epidemiology defines an endemic disease as, “the constant presence of a disease or infectious agent within a given geographic area or population group; may also refer to the usual prevalence of a given disease within such an area or group.”
Often endemics are confused with epidemic. Epidemic refers to an outbreak of a disease. An epidemic occurs when a disease is spreading through one or more populations. In contrast, the endemic disease is one that is constantly present in a group or geographic area. Pandemics are worldwide epidemics. Under certain circumstances, an epidemic can lead to a disease becoming endemic.
According to an article published in the journal Science, when epidemics become endemic, they become “increasingly tolerated” and the responsibility of protecting against it shifts from the government to the individual. This means, even though the government agencies will actively engage in tracking and identifying cases, the individuals themselves will be responsible for managing risk from the disease and seeking care.
One mathematical modelling published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health states that if R0, which is the rate at which the virus is transmitted is equal to 1, then the disease is endemic. When R0>1, it implies that the cases are increasing and that the disease will eventually become an epidemic. If R0<1, it implies the number of cases of the disease are decreasing. Here, R0 refers to the number of people infected by a person who has the disease.
The path of getting rid of this virus is really uncertain. Even the biggest of the economies are facing a lot of loss due to the lockdown imposed in order to save the people from this virus. We can further wait and hope for the vaccines to be made soon and be available for the people around the world.
