“I don't think that word means what you think it does.”
That comment is an especially mean way of telling someone that they have used a word or term in the wrong way. Words have dictionary definitions, and then they have a popular meaning. And, sometimes, they have a popular but incorrect meaning.
Take the public health term “pandemic”. MedicineNet.com defines pandemic as:
An epidemic (a sudden outbreak) that becomes very widespread and affects a whole region, a continent, or the world.
Notice that the definition does not involve the seriousness of the illness, or its mortality rate. The last pandemic is still ongoing, the swine flu or novel H1N1 pandemic. It meets the criteria in the definition but the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization has been widely criticized. Why? The popular meaning of the word includes mental images of the Spanish Flu or smallpox or Black Plague, bodies in the streets.
The news media did little to prevent this incorrect meaning from taking hold. Panic and fear sells papers. It also allows the media to then turn 180 degrees and pursue public health agencies for declaring a pandemic that did not kill hundreds of millions. Distorting the meaning of the word pandemic allows the existence of an extended media reporting cycle.
The definition of the word pandemic includes the term “epidemic”. MedicineNet.com defines epidemic as:
The occurrence of more cases of a disease than would be expected in a community or region during a given time period. A sudden severe outbreak of a disease such as SARS.
California's Department of Public Health (CDPH) has declared the current outbreak of whooping cough or pertussis in that state as epidemic. As of July 13, 2010, the state authorities had received reports of 1,496 cases of pertussis, up over 500% from the same time in 2009. That meets the definition of an epidemic.
At the same time, the State of Texas had reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that it had 1,341 cases of whooping cough so far in 2010. They have not declared that they have a epidemic. Why? In 2009, for the same period, Texas reported 1,232 cases of whooping cough. The number of cases is up but only slightly, not meeting the definition of the word epidemic.
There is one last public health term that is often confused with the others. MedicineNet.com defines endemic as:
Present in a community at all times but in relatively low frequency. Something that is endemic is typically restricted or peculiar to a locality or region.
Dengue fever is described by the CDC as endemic in Puerto Rico. Now, many illnesses are cyclical in their appearance. An endemic illness can, every few years, flare up into an epidemic, just as dengue fever has in Puerto Rico in 2010.
The public health terms pandemic, epidemic and endemic all describe an illness by its prevalence and geographic location. Nothing is stated in their definitions that describes the severity of the illness or its mortality rate. Media consumers should be very aware of those limits and watch for improper use of the terms.
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