{"id":1263,"date":"2020-03-18T19:51:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T19:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bccdcfound.wpengine.com\/whats-new\/pandemics-how-to-flatten-the-curve\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T23:53:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T23:53:03","slug":"pandemics-how-to-flatten-the-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pacificpublichealth.ca\/whats-new\/pandemics-how-to-flatten-the-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandemics & How to Flatten the Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, a pandemic<\/a>.

We get it; it sounds really scary. In BC and globally, things are changing very quickly and people are feeling anxious and afraid. Trusted information<\/a> can both educate and quell fears, so we\u2019re going to break down some key concepts in two parts. This part covers pandemics and what you can do to \u201cflatten the curve\u201d. You can part two, about pandemics and some terminology, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/r0MKHJN4oys\n<\/div>
Dr Eleni Galanis, Physician epidemiologist at the BC Centre for Disease Control discusses containing the virus and preventing the spread. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Declaring a pandemic means that there\u2019s a new organism that\u2019s infectious, like a virus, that is being spread over a large region or around the world, and is affecting a large percentage of the population. The word doesn\u2019t tell us about the severity of the disease that\u2019s caused by the virus. Symptoms may be mild or severe, meaning calling something a pandemic has no bearing on how an individual experiences the illness associated with it. The virus, age, and other medical conditions, dictate that.

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Declaring a pandemic is not a call to warn people that it\u2019s time to panic. It\u2019s a call to encourage and enable governments and health officials to take stronger actions and to enlist emergency plans to protect the public <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A few terms you\u2019re probably hearing are \u201ctravel-related\u201d or \u201cimported\u201d cases; these mean that cases arrive in a country or area because somebody traveled to a country where there is an outbreak, and brought it with them to a new area. Another term is \u201ccommunity transmission\u201d. This means that there is spread of an illness with no known link to travel or contact with previously confirmed travel-related cases. The shift from travel-related transmission to community transmission impacts the decision to name it a pandemic.<\/strong> Not to be taken lightly, the WHO decides to characterize something as a pandemic when there are community outbreaks across large regions, e.g. several continents.

Declaring a pandemic is not a call to warn people that it\u2019s time to panic. It\u2019s a call to encourage and enable governments and health officials to take stronger actions and to enlist emergency plans to protect the public, like travel bans. All of this is done to protect the health of the global population and to slow the spread of the disease. By naming a disease a pandemic, countries are encouraged to take more aggressive actions.<\/strong> This is why the WHO named COVID-19 a pandemic.

We\u2019re seeing some of those aggressive actions play out now as individuals are being asked to undertake measures for the greater good. Social distancing, self-isolation, self-monitoring for symptoms, working remotely when possible, avoiding travel and large crowds\u2014these are a few of the measures we all must take.

All of this will lead to flattening the curve<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flattening the curve means transmission is slowing, we are delaying spread, and there are fewer numbers of cases. The goal is to keep the number of new cases from rising too fast. A flattened curve is about keeping the number of cases low, to a number that our healthcare systems can effectively manage. Every person has a job to do to delay the spread of COVID-19. If we all play our role, the curve will flatten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flattening the curve allows the health care system to continue working and serving the population, without overburdening it. From www.flattenthecurve.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If we flatten the curve, we won\u2019t run the risk of exhausting resources, and everybody who needs to receive care will be able to receive it.

What you can<\/a> do is simple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n