Word of the day

[donkpow]

"Endemic"

Learn it and love it.

Embrace it, use it.

Spread the word.

[Longjohn ★]

Endemic (epidemiology)

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This article is about the epidemiological meaning of "endemic". For the ecological meaning, see Endemism.

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In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic (from Greek ἐν en "in, within" and δῆμος demos "people") in a population when that infection is constantly maintained at a baseline level in a geographic area without external inputs.^[1] For example, chickenpox is endemic (steady state) in the UK, but malaria is not. Every year, there are a few cases of malaria reported in the UK, but these do not lead to sustained transmission in the population due to the lack of a suitable vector (mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles). While it might be common to say that AIDS is "endemic" in many African countries, meaning found in an area, this is a use of the word in its etymological, rather than epidemiological, form. AIDS cases in Africa are increasing, so the disease is not in an endemic steady state. The spread of AIDS in Africa could be correctly called an epidemic, however.^[2]

For an infection that relies on person-to-person transmission to be endemic, each person who becomes infected with the disease must pass it on to one other person on average. Assuming a completely susceptible population, that means that the basic reproduction number (R₀) of the infection must equal one. In a population with some immune individuals, the basic reproduction number multiplied by the proportion of susceptible individuals in the population (S) must be one. This takes account of the probability of each individual to whom the disease may be transmitted being susceptible to it, effectively discounting the immune sector of the population. So, for a disease to be in an endemic steady state it is:

In this way, the infection neither dies out nor does the number of infected people increase exponentially but the infection is said to be in an endemic steady state. An infection that starts as an epidemic will eventually either die out (with the possibility of it resurging in a theoretically predictable cyclical manner) or reach the endemic steady state, depending on a number of factors, including the virulence of the disease and its mode of transmission.

If a disease is in an endemic steady state in a population, the relation above allows us to estimate the R₀ (an important parameter) of a particular infection. This in turn can be fed into a mathematical model for the epidemic.

 

[Wilbur ★]

In 7th grade, my teacher had a daily exercise of having each student pick a word to introduce to the class.  It had to be a word they had never used before and it had to be correctly presented in in a sentence for the demonstration.  The teacher seemed to know them all.  Back then, I found that quite impressive.  I remember picking "pusillanimous" once and it remains a word, I have never put to use. 

[maddmaxx ★]

For the purposes of this forum wouldn't "fuck" be the more likely word of the day.

[Ralphie ★]

1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

pusillanimous

Did you explain what the root of that word is?
My favourite was when a cranky cow-orker first had to write his own evaluation, he was looking up all the big words he could to jam in there.  “Maintained propinquity with vendors” was one of my favourites.  

 

 

[donkpow]

With this new pair a dimes and moving to the distance opening society, I figured I'd toss it around.

[Ralphie ★]

7 minutes ago, donkpow said:

With this new pair a dimes and moving to the distance opening society, I figured I'd toss it around.

Good

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

In 7th grade, my teacher had a daily exercise of having each student pick a word to introduce to the class.  It had to be a word they had never used before and it had to be correctly presented in in a sentence for the demonstration.  The teacher seemed to know them all.  Back then, I found that quite impressive.  I remember picking "pusillanimous" once and it remains a word, I have never put to use. 

Isn’t that another name for people from Texas?

[ParodyMeter]

Today's word of the day is 'stupid'

"This thread is stupid."

 

[donkpow]

1 hour ago, InsultBot said:

Today's word of the day is 'stupid'

"This thread is stupid."