Pandemic

This article is about pandemics in general. For other uses, see Pandemic (disambiguation).

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, convention centers (pictured here) were deemed to be ideal sites for temporary hospitals, due to their existing infrastructure (electrical, water, sewage).[1] Hotels and dormitories were also considered appropriate because they can use negative pressure technology.[1]

A pandemic (/pænˈdɛmɪk/ pan-DEM-ik) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected individuals such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.

Throughout human history, there have been a number of pandemics of diseases such as smallpox. The Black Death, caused by the Plague, caused the deaths of up to half of the population of Europe in the 14th century.[2][3][4][5] The term pandemic had not been used then, but was used for later epidemics, including the 1918 H1N1 influenza A pandemic—more commonly known as the Spanish flu—which is the deadliest pandemic in history.[6][7][8] The most recent pandemics include the HIV/AIDS pandemic,[a][9] the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all these diseases still circulate among humans though their impact now is often far less.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 194 member states of the World Health Organization began negotiations on an International Treaty on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, with a requirement to submit a draft of this treaty to the 77th World Health Assembly during its 2024 convention.[10][11] Further, on 6 May 2024, the White House released an official policy to more safely manage medical research projects involving potentially hazardous pathogens, including viruses and bacteria, that may pose a risk of a pandemic.[12][13]

  1. ^ a b Serbu J (27 March 2020). "Army Corps sees convention centers as good option to build temporary hospitals". Federal News Network. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Black death 'discriminated' between victims (ABC News in Science)". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 29 January 2008. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  3. ^ "Black Death's Gene Code Cracked". Wired. 3 October 2001. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  4. ^ "Health: De-coding the Black Death". BBC. 3 October 2001. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  5. ^ DeLeo FR, Hinnebusch BJ (September 2005). "A plague upon the phagocytes". Nature Medicine. 11 (9): 927–928. doi:10.1038/nm0905-927. PMID 16145573. S2CID 31060258.
  6. ^ 1918 Pandemics (H1N1 virus). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  7. ^ Rosenwald MS (7 April 2020). "History's deadliest pandemics, from ancient Rome to modern America". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Weekly Virological Update on 05 August 2010". World Health Organization (WHO). 5 August 2010. Archived from the original on 7 August 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  9. ^ Roychoudhury S, Das A, Sengupta P, Dutta S, Roychoudhury S, Choudhury AP, et al. (December 2020). "Viral Pandemics of the Last Four Decades: Pathophysiology, Health Impacts and Perspectives". International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17 (24): 9411. doi:10.3390/ijerph17249411. PMC 7765415. PMID 33333995.
  10. ^ "World Health Assembly agrees to launch process to develop historic global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response". World Health Organization. 1 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  11. ^ Cumming-Bruce N (1 December 2021). "W.H.O. members agree to begin talks on a global pandemic treaty". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  12. ^ Zimmer C, Mueller B (7 May 2024). "U.S. Tightens Rules on Risky Virus Research - A long-awaited new policy broadens the type of regulated viruses, bacteria, fungi and toxins, including those that could threaten crops and livestock". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 May 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  13. ^ White House (6 May 2024). "United States Government Policy for Oversight of Dual Use Research of Concern and Pathogens with Enhanced Pandemic Potential" (PDF). Whitehouse.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 May 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.


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