community spread
Neighborhood disease circulation
Community spread describes the transmission of a disease within a population when the source of infection can no longer be traced to a specific person or location.
Health officials use this term to mark a significant phase in an outbreak—the point when a pathogen is circulating freely rather than being contained to identifiable clusters.
Once community spread was detected, officials recommended masks in all indoor spaces.
The term gained wide recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- superspreaderUnusually contagious infected person
- outbreakSudden eruption of trouble
- pandemicGlobal disease outbreak
- spilloverExcess that escapes
- infectionPathogen invasion causing illness
transmission · exposure risk · close contact · contact tracing · prevalence · asymptomatic carriers · quarantine · herd immunity · flatten the curve · cluster · case count · social distancing · mask mandate · stay home · carrier state · isolation · incubation period · outbreak investigation
- pandemiclockdowns, COVID-19, outbreak, epidemic, COVID
- health crisespandemic, epidemic, outbreak, health emergency, public health emergency
- COVID-19COVID-19, spike protein, mRNA vaccines, omicron, variants
- contagioncontagion, outbreak, epidemic, pandemic, spreading
- Drug Resistancedrug resistance, antibiotic resistance, MRSA, superbug, resistant strains
spread, community, communicate, communication, commonplace, commune, communal, communications, communicative