[News Terms] 'Epidemic' Spreading in France Due to Bedbug Fear

'Epidemic' refers to an infectious disease that spreads rapidly among many people within a specific area over a short period. Unlike a pandemic, which is an infectious disease spread over a wide area, an epidemic means a disease found in a relatively limited region.

The World Health Organization (WHO) sets six alert levels according to the risk stages of infectious diseases. Level 1 is the stage limited to animals, Level 2 is when infection can spread from animals to humans, Level 3 is when human-to-human transmission begins, Level 4 is the early stage of rapid spread among humans leading to an outbreak, Level 5 is when the infection spreads widely causing outbreaks in at least two countries, and Level 6 is when the infectious disease spreads to other continents, causing a global pandemic.

Paris cityscape. [Photo by Pixabay]

The final Level 6 is called a 'pandemic,' and the stage before a pandemic is an epidemic. The Greek prefix 'epi' means 'over' or 'near.' 'Demic' originates from the word 'demos,' meaning people or region.

Historically, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, smallpox, plague, cholera, and influenza have been examples of pandemics. Recent examples include Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that occurred in China in 2002, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that emerged in the Middle East in 2012, and Ebola virus disease that broke out in West Africa in 2014.

The term 'endemic,' widely used after pandemics, comes from the prefix 'En,' meaning 'within,' and refers to "an infectious disease or phenomenon that occurs periodically without ending in a specific region." Sometimes it is mistakenly interpreted as "the pandemic is over," confusing the prefix with the English word 'end,' but this is incorrect. In 2020, the National Institute of the Korean Language announced that the refined term for endemic is 'periodic infectious disease outbreak.'

In English, it is used to describe a disease that has become established in a region. This means the disease is predictable and manageable. For example, like the flu, it is possible to predict when it will occur and the scale of patients, and vaccines or treatments are available to control the disease.

There is also the term 'infodemic,' which refers to the rapid spread of misinformation, fake news, and malicious rumors through media and the internet. It is a compound of 'Information' and 'demic,' and can be refined in Korean as 'information infectious disease.'

On July 4, U.S. President Joe Biden caused a stir by referring to frequent mass shootings and violent crimes in the United States as an epidemic, meaning "crimes that occur frequently only in the U.S." In his Independence Day speech, President Biden said, "I will never give up the fight against the epidemic of gun violence."

Recently in France, as fear of bed bugs has spread, the term 'epidemic' has been widely used through social media (SNS) and other platforms.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.