6.10.1: What Makes a Pandemic?
Before declaring an outbreak to be a pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers how widespread the disease is within a country, and how much it has spread around the world. The WHO divides the continents into 6 regions, and once an epidemic has increased within countries in the region and spread to at least one other country outside the region, the WHO may declare the outbreak to be a pandemic. Pandemics are typically contagious diseases with infection rates that skyrocket quickly - requiring a rapid, organized response. The Black Death, Spanish Flu and COVID-19 are all examples of pandemics (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 2021).