| Abstract from DBPedia | An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί epi "upon or above" and δῆμος demos "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious diseases are generally caused by several factors including a significant change in the ecology of the areal population (e.g., increased stress maybe additional reason or increase in the density of a vector species), the introduction of an emerging pathogen to an areal population (by movement of pathogen or host) or an unexpected genetic change that is in the pathogen reservoir. Generally, epidemics concerns with the patterns of infectious disease spread. An epidemic may occur when host immunity to either an established pathogen or newly emerging novel pathogen is suddenly reduced below that found in the endemic equilibrium and the transmission threshold is exceeded. For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic. An epidemic may be restricted to one location within one country or further develop more locations in a country, however, if it spreads to other regional countries or even among continents but only if affects or threatens a substantial number of population, it may be overseen as within the terms of pandemic. The registering and announcing of epidemic usually requires a good understanding of a baseline rate of incidence; epidemics for certain diseases, such as influenza, are defined as reaching some defined increase in incidence above this baseline. A few cases of a very rare disease may be classified as an epidemic, while many cases of a common disease (such as the common cold) would not. An epidemic can cause enormous damage through financial and economic losses in addition to impaired health and loss of life.エピデミック（英: epidemic、過感染）とは、世界保健機関 (WHO) の定義によると、疫病などで明らかに正常な数値を超えた症例が地域や社会で発生していることを指す言葉である。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Epidemic) |
