Endemic (epidemiology)

Uncommon card · No. 158582

In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic in a specific population or populated place when that infection is constantly present, or maintained at a baseline level. The term describes the distribution of an infectious disease among a group of people or animals or within a populated area. An endemic disease always has a steady, predictable number of people or animals getting sick, but that number can be high (hyperendemic) or low (hypoendemic), and the disease can be severe or mild. Also, a disease that is usually endemic can become epidemic. For example, chickenpox is endemic in the United Kingdom, but malaria is not. Every year, there are a few cases of malaria reported in the UK, but these do not lead to sustained transmission in the population due to the lack of a suitable vector (mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles). Consequently, there is no constant baseline level of malaria infection in the UK, and the disease is not endemic. However, the number of people who get chickenpox...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Photo Credit: Content Providers(s): CDC/Dr. Erskine Palmer/B.G. Partin, Public domain