If you draw any Epidemic cards, immediately take the following steps in this order:
- Increase: the infection rate marker moves forward one space on the Infection Rate Track.
- Infect: the bottom card is drawn from the Infection Deck. Unless its disease color has been eradicated, 3 disease cubes of that color are put on the named city. If the city already has cubes of this color, just add enough cubes so that it has 3 cubes of this color, when another cube is added then an outbreak of the disease occurs in this city (see Outbreaks). The card is discarded to the Infection Discard Pile.
If the number of cubes actually needed on the board cannot be placed because there are not enough cubes of the required color left in the supply, the game ends and your team has lost! This can occur during an epidemic, an outbreak, or an infection (see Outbreaks and Infections).
- Intensify: the cards in the Infection Discard Pile are reshuffled and placed on top of the Infection Deck.
It is unlikely, but possible, to draw 2 Epidemic cards at once. In this case, all three steps occur once and are then repeated. In this event, the second epidemic's Infection card will be the only card to "reshuffle", ending on top of the Infection Deck. An outbreak will then occur in this city during infection (see Infect Cities) unless an Event card is played to prevent this (see Event Cards).
After resolving any Epidemic cards, they are removed from the game. You do not draw replacement cards for them.