Added by Caroline Harcourt, last edited by Giles Constant on 22 Jan, 2008  (view change)

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An epidemic is a disease or infection that spreads rapidly, i.e. Rp >>1.  A more cynical definition of an epidemic is 'more cases than I expected.'  Some people, needlessly, insist on referring to epidemic diseases of non-human animals as epizootic. A recent issue of EID carried an interesting article on the history of the term epidemic.