WHO names novel coronavirus as 'COVID-19'
12 February, 2020
The UN health agency on Tuesday (Feb 11) announced that "COVID-19" are going to be the official name of the deadly coronavirus from China, saying the disease represented a "very grave threat" for the planet but there was a "realistic chance" of stopping it.
"We now have a reputation for the disease and it's COVID-19," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
Tedros said that "co" stands for "corona", "vi" for "virus" and "d" for "disease", while "19" was for the year, because the outbreak was first identified on Dec 31.
Tedros said the name had been chosen to avoid references to a selected geographical location, animal species or group of individuals in line with international recommendations for naming aimed toward preventing stigmatisation.
WHO had earlier given the virus the temporary name of "2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease" and China's National Health Commission in the week said it had been temporarily calling it "novel coronavirus pneumonia" or NCP.
Under a group of guidelines issued in 2015, WHO advises against using place names like Ebola and Zika - where those diseases were first identified and which are now inevitably linked to them within the public mind.
More general names like "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome" or "Spanish flu" also are now avoided as they will stigmatise entire regions or ethnic groups.
WHO also notes that using animal species within the name can create confusion, like in 2009 when H1N1 was popularly mentioned as "swine flu".
This had a serious impact on the pork industry albeit the disease was being spread by people instead of pigs.
People's names - usually the scientists who identified the disease - also are banned, as are "terms that incite undue fear" like "unknown" or "fatal", the WHO said.
MORE POWERFUL THAN surprise attack
The virus has killed quite 1,000 people, infected over 42,000 and reached some 25 countries, with the WHO declaring a worldwide health emergency.
Addressing scientists at the primary international conference on combating the virus earlier on Tuesday, Tedros warned that the virus was a "very grave threat".
"Viruses can have more powerful consequences than any terrorist action," he told reporters later.
About 400 scientists were participating within the two-day international meeting in Geneva called to review how the virus is transmitted and possible vaccines against it.
"We aren't defenceless," Tedros said, adding: "If we invest now ... we've a sensible chance of stopping this outbreak."
Participants also will discuss the source of the virus, which is assumed to possess originated in bats and reached humans via other "intermediary" species like snakes or pangolins.
WHO sent an advance team to China in the week for a world mission to look at the epidemic.
It was unclear, however, whether the team would be ready to visit Wuhan, a city in central China which has been under lockdown after the outbreak was registered during a food and live animal market within the city.
ROADMAP FOR RESEARCH
No specific treatment or vaccine against the virus exists, and WHO has repeatedly urged countries to share data so as to further research into the disease.
"That is particularly true in reference to sharing of samples and sequences. To defeat this outbreak, we'd like open and equitable sharing, consistent with the principles of fairness and equity," Tedros told the scientific conference.
He said he hoped the scientists could agree a roadmap "around which researchers and donors will align".
Several teams of experts in Australia, Britain, China, France, Germany and therefore the us are racing to develop a vaccine - a process that normally takes years.
Efforts to return up with a vaccine are being led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a body established in 2017 to finance costly biotechnology research within the wake of an Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed quite 11,000 people.
Ultimately, however, scientists may find yourself within the same situation they were during the 2002-03 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - which died out before a vaccine might be fully developed.
A close cousin of COVID-19, SARS spread round the world and killed nearly 800.
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