Pandemic or Epidemic? Isolation or Quarantine? Defining COVID-19 Terms

Yesterday (March 11, 2020) The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus disease, also often known as COVID-19, a pandemic. Let’s break down these concepts so that they are easier to know and help our patients and the general public stay abreast of all they mean.

Pandemic

A pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread across several countries or continents, normally affecting numerous people (CDC, 2012). Most often, a pandemic is the results of a brand new strain of influenza and usually develops over time as influenza strains mutate. However, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic showed that a pandemic can occur suddenly, suddenly (Rebman, 2020).

Epidemic (CDC, 2012)

An epidemic refers to a rise, often sudden, within the variety of cases of a disease beyond what is often expected in a given population in a given area. Epidemics may result from a recent increase in the amount or virulence of the agent, a recent introduction into an environment where it was previously absent, an increased mode of transmission, a change within the susceptibility of the host response, and/or aspects that increase host exposure or involve introduction through recent portals of entry.

• Refers to an epidemic in a smaller geographic area.
• A refers to a set of cases, grouped by place and time, which can be suspected to be greater than the expected number, even when the expected number isn’t known.

Social distancing (CDC, 2020a)

Social distancing means staying out of places of public gatherings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining a distance of roughly 6 feet or 2 meters from other people.

Quarantine (Rebman, 2020)

Quarantine is the separation of people that don’t yet have symptoms but have been exposed to an infectious person and are believed to be prone to infection. Exposed persons are separated from others in order that the onset of illness, if it occurs, is recognized quickly and evaded susceptible people. When a quarantined person develops symptoms of illness, they needs to be assumed to be infected and should be Quarantine also means excluding healthy people from areas known or suspected to be contaminated or where infected patients are present. Quarantines could be voluntary or enforced. In general, the length of quarantine is the same as the length of illness to which the person was exposed.

Isolation (CDC, 2020a)

Isolation means separating an individual or group of individuals known or reasonably suspected to be infected with a communicable or potentially communicable disease from individuals who should not infected. Isolation could also be voluntary or enforced by a federal, state, or local public health order.

Transmission/spread (CDC, 2020b)

Transmission refers back to the mechanism(s) by which an infectious agent(s) spreads. At the time of this writing, we’re still learning about how COVID-19 spreads and to what extent we will expect it to spread. Person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 is currently considered the first mode of transmission. People are considered most contagious once they are most symptomatic. Some spread could also be possible before people show symptoms, and it is feasible that an individual could grow to be infected with COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it after which touching their very own mouth, nose, or possibly eyes, but this isn’t considered the first way the virus spreads.

Incubation period (CDC, 2020b)

The incubation period is the time from exposure to the virus until the primary symptoms appear.

What about specific terminology you may hear within the context of the virus itself?

Viruses and the diseases they cause are named in another way. Think: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency virus (AIDS).

Here is a few basic details about COVID-19 (WHO, 2020):

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. This name was established by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) on February 11, 2020, attributable to its genetic relationship to the coronavirus accountable for the SARS outbreak in 2003.

On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization named the disease coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, within the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2012). Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, Third Edition. Lesson 1: Introduction to Epidemiology. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section11.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020a). U.S. Interim Guidance for Risk Assessment and Public Health Management of Persons with Potential Exposure to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Geographic Risk and Contacts of Persons with Laboratory-Confirmed Cases. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/risk-assessment.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020b). How COVID-19 spreads. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html

Rebman, A. (2020). Infectious disease disasters: bioterrorism, emerging infections, and pandemics. Association for Professionals in Infection Control & Epidemiology (APIC) Online text.

World Health Organization (2020). Nomenclature of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it