In the two years since SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, began rapidly circulating across the globe, many people have had to learn a new vocabulary. It’s one of pandemics and antibodies, rapid tests, and vaccination rates.
But as the pandemic has continued, another word has been added to the collective lexicon: endemic. With the virus unlikely to disappear, global health experts want people to think of COVID-19 as an endemic disease, not a pandemic.
In other words, it’s a disease that’s always going to be around, not one for which there’s a definite end.
Read on to learn how a disease becomes endemic, what differentiates it from a pandemic, and how endemic diseases are managed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says an endemic is “the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area.”
To put it another way, an endemic disease is consistently present, but it spreads at predictable rates that can be managed by communities.
These rates may be higher than desired levels, however. Currently, infections with SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting COVID-19 disease remain very high across the United States and the world.
But the number of new cases each day is beginning to stabilize. That is one sign the pandemic may be transitioning to endemic status.
Examples of endemic diseases
Influenza, also known as the flu, is a good example of an endemic disease. Despite vaccinations and effective treatments, the flu has a constant presence in the global community. In fact, the CDC says 12,000 to 52,000 people die annually from the flu in the United States.
In parts of the world, malaria is considered endemic. In the United States, it’s nearly eradicated because of safety measures, such as screens on doors and windows, spraying, and community efforts to reduce mosquito populations. But in other parts of the world, it remains a constant presence.
It’s important to remember that endemic…