The UN Health Agency announced that COVID-19 will be the official name for the deadly virus from China, saying the disease poses a “very serious threat” to the world, but there is a “real chance” to stop it.
“We now have the name of the disease, and that is COVID-19,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
Tedros said that 'co' stands for 'corona', 'vi' stands for 'virus' and 'd' stands for 'disease', and '19' stands for 'year' since the outbreak was first identified on December 31st.
According to Tedros, the name was chosen to avoid references to a specific geographic location, animal species or group of people, in line with international naming guidelines aimed at preventing stigmatization.
Earlier, the WHO gave the virus the temporary name '2019-NCoV acute respiratory disease', and China's National Health Commission said this week that it is temporarily calling it 'new coronavirus pneumonia', or NCP.
? BREAKING?
“We now have a name for the # 2019nCoV disease:
COVID-19.
I'll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine – COVID-19 ”
– @ DrTedros # COVID19 pic.twitter.com/Kh0wx2qfzk
– World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 11, 2020
In accordance with a set of guidelines issued in 2015, WHO discourages the use of place names such as Ebola and Zika – where these diseases were first identified and are now inevitably associated with them in the public mind.
More general names such as 'Middle East respiratory syndrome' or 'Spanish flu' are also now shunned as they can stigmatize entire regions or ethnic groups.
The WHO also notes that the use of animal species in the name could create confusion, for example in 2009, when H1N1 was popularly called 'swine flu'.
This had a serious impact on the production of pork, although the disease was spread by humans, not pigs.
The names of people – usually the scientists who have identified the disease – are as undesirable as 'terms that cause excessive fear' such as 'unknown' or 'fatal', the WHO said.
