Disease names – what do they mean?

In the midst of the continuing pandemic, World Dictionary Day seems like the perfect occasion to consider the meaning and origin behind some of the most well-known disease names. We’ve been speaking with Dr. Steve Berger, our co-founder, to learn more. CORONAVIRUSES Let’s start with the obvious one. COVID 19, which began as a localized outbreak of “Novel Coronavirus” infection,  is now a name almost every household in the world will know. COVID-19 comes from COrona VIrus Disease which first appeared in 2019, with the disease itself being caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS was a prominent name back in the early 2000s, with a simpler acronym Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.  The names of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 have been used throughout mainstream media, but not without a certain degree of confusion, which is similar to the one sometimes seen with HIV and AIDS. A useful analogy is that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) much like SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19. A lesser-known fact outside of the medical community is that there are many different species of a type of virus. Each type is given a name derived from the kind of virus it is and often its discovery whereabouts. As of 2020, seven coronavirus species have been associated with human disease:          HCoV 229E        HCoV OC43        SARS-CoV        HCoV NL63 (New Haven coronavirus)        HCoV HKU1        MERS-CoV (the Middle...
Source: GIDEON blog - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Epidemiology News Source Type: blogs