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2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan <br />Kittitas County, Washington <br /> <br /> <br />Chapter 4: Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment 211 <br />4.6.11. Other Hazards of Concern <br />4.6.11.1. Communicable Diseases/Pandemic <br />Description <br />Every community has the potential to face numerous diseases and public health crises. This analysis will <br />focus mostly on large scale epidemic and pandemic concerns rather than a temporary, isolated outbreak <br />of a pathogen within the planning area. However, this does not suggest that other public health concerns <br />are not a priority or a concern to Kittitas County. <br /> <br />The World Health Organization (WHO) defines pandemics, epidemics, and endemic diseases based on <br />the disease’s rate of spread. An epidemic is an unexpected increase in the number of disease cases in <br />a specific geographical area and it does not have to be contagious (e.g., yellow fever, smallpox, measles, <br />and polio). Additionally, epidemics can refer to a disease or other specific health-related behavior (e.g., <br />smoking) where rates are above the expected occurrence in a community or region. A pandemic is <br />declared when a disease growth rate is exponential; in other words, when the number of cases each day <br />grows more than the prior day. During a pandemic, the virus has nothing to do with virology, population <br />immunity, or disease severity, but it means that the virus covers a large area, affecting several countries <br />and populations. The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is not in the severity of the disease <br />but the degree that it spreads. A disease is considered endemic when it is consistently present, but limited <br />to a particular region (e.g., malaria).273F <br />274 <br /> <br />Health agencies closely monitor for diseases with the potential to cause an epidemic and seek to develop <br />immunizations and eliminate vectors. While this strategy has been remarkably successful, there are many <br />diseases of concern. For example, the human immunodeficiency virus infection/acquired <br />immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic which to this day is not controlled despite more than <br />25 years of effort since its recognition in 1981. <br />Hazard Location <br />There is no geographic location for this hazard, beyond that outbreaks typically begin in areas with high <br />populations. In contrast to seasonal influenza when it occurs during the late fall and early winter months, <br />pandemic influenza can occur during any month or season. Nonetheless, at any given location, <br />communicable diseases can be spread from person to person, from an animal to a person, or from a <br />contaminated surface or food. <br />Hazard Extent/Intensity <br />The extent of a pandemic is highly variable. A disease able to spread worldwide (or at least across several <br />countries) would infect a large number of people. Even if the affected individuals are not in mortal danger, <br />they may be extremely ill and require a higher level of care, or, at the very least, need to quarantine at <br />home to recover. A worst case scenario would involve a highly infectious pathogen (e.g., SARS -CoV-2) <br />with a high mortality rate. Since some pathogens have an asymptomatic period, mitigation efforts may <br />be difficult when infected individuals are not showing symptoms while spreading the disease. Kittitas <br />County transportation services could most likely be impacted by government mitigation efforts during the <br />outbreak of a pandemic. <br /> <br />274 Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. (2021). Epidemic, Endemic, Pandemic: What are the <br />Differences? Retrieved from https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/epidemic-endemic-pandemic-what-are- <br />differences.