What Is a Pandemic?
Have you ever heard "epidemic" and "pandemic" used interchangeably? If you have, learn an overall definition of the two terms and how they differ. In addition, explore the list of books about epidemics and pandemics and their history.
Pandemics are defined as an infectious disease affecting a large portion of the world's population and geographic area whereas an epidemic affects a much smaller portion of the population and geographic location such as a country.
- Pandemic. (2019). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Grennan, D.
- "What Is a Pandemic?" JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association, 321(9), 910–910.
- Epidemic. (2021). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
- Plague. (2021). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
Books
- Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease by Mark Harrison
- Epidemics: Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS by Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
- Epidemics and History: Disease, Power, and Imperialism by Sheldon J. Watts
- Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present by Frank M. Snowden
- Pandemics : What Everyone Needs to Know by Peter C. Doherty
- Plagues in World History by John Aberth
- Superbugs : The Race to Stop an Epidemic by Matt McCarthy