epidemic (redirected from Contractible disease)

epidemic /ep·i·dem·ic/ (ep″ĭ-dem´ik) occurring suddenly in numbers clearly in excess of normal expectancy.

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ep·i·dem·ic (p-dmk) or ep·i·dem·i·cal (--kl)

adj.

Spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or population at the same time, as of a disease or illness.

n.

An outbreak or unusually high occurrence of a disease or illness in a population or area.

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Epidemic

A situation where a large number of infections by a particular agent, such as a virus, develops in a short time. The agent is rapidly transmitted to many individuals.

Mentioned in: Hepatitis A, Influenza, Plague, Relapsing Fever, Smallpox, Typhus

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epidemic

[-dem′ik]

Etymology: Gk, epi + demos, people

1  adj, affecting a significantly large number of people at the same time.

2  n, a disease that spreads rapidly through a demographic segment of the human population, such as everyone in a given geographic area, a military base, or similar population unit, or everyone of a certain age or sex, such as the children or women of a region.

3  n, a disease or event whose incidence is beyond what is expected. Compare endemic, epizootic, pandemic.

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epidemic,

n disease outbreak that affects more individuals than expected in a population.

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epidemic,

adj spreading rapidly and widely among many individuals in a single location or region; illnesses labeled epidemic are those that oc-cur beyond normal expectations and are usually traceable to a single source.

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epidemic

a level of disease occurrence in an animal population which is significantly greater than usual; only occasionally present in the population, widely diffused and rapidly spreading. The disease is clustered in space and time. The word has common usage in veterinary science in preference to the more accurate, epizootic.

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common source epidemic

see point epidemic (below).

epidemic curve

see epidemic curve.

epidemic diarrhea of infant mice

see murine epizootic diarrhea.

epidemic hyperthermia

poisoning by Neotyphodium (Acremonium) coenophialum; called also fescue summer toxicosis.

multiple event epidemic

when the epidemic begins at about the same time in a number of places, e.g. when a poisoned batch of feed is supplied to a number of farms.

point epidemic

when the epidemic begins at one central point, with a large number of animals coming in contact with the source over a short time; a very rapid form of spread with a number of cases presenting with the same stage of the disease at the one time, indicating the single source of the pathogen.

propagated epidemic, propagative epidemic, propagating epidemic

outbreaks in which the disease propagates in one or more initial cases and then spreads to others, a relatively slow method of spread.

epidemic tremor

see avian encephalomyelitis.

epidemic typhus

see rickettsiaprowazeki.

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epidemic

adjective Referring to an epidemic noun The occurrence of more cases of a disease or illness than expected in a given community or region or among a specific group of people over a particular period of time; a wave of infections in a region by an organism with a short generation time; epidemics are usually heralded by an exponential rise in number of cases in time and a decline as susceptible persons are exhausted. See Hidden epidemic, Media epidemic, Pseudoepidemic, Tobacco epidemic. Cf Endemic, Pandemic.