近日，韓國、日本、意大利等國新冠肺炎確診病例急劇增加，epidemic和pandemic這兩個(gè)詞頻頻在外媒報道中出現。那么到底應該用epidemic，還是pandemic呢？
Tourists wearing protective masks walk near Duomo square, as a coronavirus outbreak continues to grow in northern Italy, in Milan, Italy, February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
As the new coronavirus continues to spread around the world, the words epidemic and pandemic are showing up in news reports more often than they usually do. While the terms are closely related, they don’t refer to the same thing.
新冠病毒持續在全球傳播之際，epidemic和pandemic這兩個(gè)詞比往常更頻繁地在新聞報道中出現。盡管這兩個(gè)詞很相近，但二者指的不是同一種東西。
As the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) explains on its website, “an epidemic occurs when an infectious disease spreads rapidly to many people.” Usually, what precedes an epidemic is an outbreak, or “a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease.” An outbreak can affect a single community or several countries, but it’s on a much smaller scale than an epidemic.
感染控制和流行病學(xué)專(zhuān)業(yè)人員協(xié)會(huì )在網(wǎng)站上解釋道：“當一種傳染性疾病迅速傳播給許多人時(shí)，就被稱(chēng)為epidemic?！蓖ǔ?，epidemic發(fā)生之前會(huì )有outbreak（疾病暴發(fā)），即“某種疾病案例的突然增加”。Outbreak可能影響到單個(gè)社區或幾個(gè)國家，但規模比epidemic小得多。
If an epidemic can’t be contained and keeps expanding its reach, public health officials might start calling it a pandemic, which means it’s affected enough people in different areas of the world to be considered a global outbreak. In short, a pandemic is a worldwide epidemic. It infects more people, causes more deaths, and can also have widespread social and economic repercussions. The spread of the Spanish influenza from 1918 to 1919, which killed between 20 and 40 million people around the world, was a pandemic; more recently, the H1N1 influenza created a pandemic in 2009.
如果一場(chǎng)epidemic不能被控制住，還在不斷蔓延，公共衛生官員可能就要開(kāi)始稱(chēng)之為pandemic，意思是這場(chǎng)流行病已經(jīng)影響到世界不同地區足夠多的人，到了全球性暴發(fā)的程度。簡(jiǎn)而言之，pandemic就是全球性的流行病。Pandemic感染的人更多，導致的死亡人數更多，還可能對社會(huì )和經(jīng)濟造成廣泛的影響。1918年到1919年的西班牙流感在全世界導致2000萬(wàn)至4000萬(wàn)人喪生，這種流行病屬于pandemic；離現在更近的2009年的甲型流感也是pandemic。
Here’s where it gets a little tricky: There’s no cut-and-dried classification system for outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics.
但是微妙之處在于，outbreak、epidemic和pandemic三者之間沒(méi)有既成的區分體系。
The WHO warned on Monday against using the term "pandemic" to describe the current outbreak.
世界衛生組織2月24日曾警告稱(chēng)，本次新冠肺炎疫情不能用pandemic來(lái)形容。
"It really is borderline semantics, to be honest with you,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN earlier this month. “I think you could have people arguing each end of it. Pandemics mean different things to different people.”
美國國家過(guò)敏和傳染病研究所的所長(cháng)安東尼·福奇本月早些時(shí)候告訴CNN說(shuō)：“老實(shí)說(shuō)，這確實(shí)是邊界語(yǔ)義學(xué)。我想你會(huì )聽(tīng)到人們各執一詞。不同的人對pandemic有不同的理解?！?/span>
英文來(lái)源：Mental Floss
