WHO gives name to disease caused by novel coronavirus

🚨 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

The disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, which has spread in various parts of the world and has claimed a thousand lives, has now an official name.

This was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a press briefing on Tuesday, February 12, saying the disease will now be called COVID-2019.

Explaining the name, Ghebreyesus said, “CO stands for corona, VI stands for virus, [and] D for disease.”

“Under agreed guidelines between WHO, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), we had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease,” the WHO chief said.

He stressed that giving a name to the disease is necessary so that other names that are “inaccurate and stigmatizing” won’t be used.

“It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks,” he added.

As of writing, Ghebreyesus said there were already more than 42,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in China and it has now surpassed 1,000 deaths. Meanwhile, there were 393 confirmed cases in 24 countries with one death recorded outside China.

In the same briefing, Ghebreyesus said the WHO is hosting a meeting of more than 400 scientists from across the globe, in which they are expecting to come up with an agreed roadmap.

“A research roadmap is also important for organizations that fund research to have a clear sense of what the public health priorities are, so they can make investments that deliver the biggest public health impact,” he said.

“The development of vaccines & therapeutics is one important part of the research agenda – but it is only one part. They will take time to develop, but in the meantime, we are not defenseless,” he continued.

The WHO chief told reporters that the vaccine for the novel coronavirus could be readied in 18 months, but until then, countries should make use of the available public health interventions to prevent infections.

The WHO earlier declared the novel coronavirus outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern, amid increasing numbers of countries affected by the virus.