[one-more-minute]

Epidemiologists study health at the population level in general, not just communicable diseases. So at least in that sense the "epidemi-" prefix isn't limited to infection. Is there any better term for a health issue with rapidly increasing prevalence?

A dictionary of medicine from 1882 suggests that common usage of the word has become more narrow, not less, and that there was some level of debate about the technical meaning [1]. Stedman's Medical Dictionary (1920) gives a more modern definition, "a disease attacking nearly simultaneously a large number of people", without restriction to infectious diseases.

[1] https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Dictionary_of_Medic...