Unfortunately, I failed to take Latin so I frequently have to look up words or call my younger sister. I wasn't sure about the difference between a "pandemic" and "epidemic". Recent headlines about the Swine Flu and motherhood have lead me to investigate the terms more closely. I was introduced to the term "pandemic" in reference to AIDS. I had heard of it referred to as an "epidemic," but while traveling abroad, heard the word "pandemic." According to Wikiedia, "pan" as a prefix means all. That was my original understanding because of the term Pan-Greek councils at universities or PanAfrican movement that encompasses a unified effort by various African countries.
I wondered if the Swine flu was a pandemic due to its travel across the globe. I taught a globalization course, but never considered discussing pandemics as a function of it. Since reading about the spread of the Swine flue through air travel and seeing evidence of it in North America and Asia, I thought its presence in four countries was the criteria for the use of the term "pan."
Wikipedia defines, a pandemic as "an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through a populations across large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide." So a pandemic doesn't have to cross the globe, just a large region according to this definition.
References:
The World Health Organization
The Daily Beast Cheat Sheet
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