Who comes up with names for viruses and what a badly chosen word can lead to - ForumDaily
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Who comes up with the names for the viruses and what the wrong word can lead to

Most likely, you've been reading a lot about viruses lately and noticed that some of them have several names - the official scientific one and the simple common one. But where do they come from? Tells Reader's Digest.

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The official scientific name of the virus is determined by the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses. Committee members select it on the basis of proposals sent to them by scientists who are researching a new virus to figure out how to classify it on the basis of morphology (that is, its size and shape), chemical structure and method of reproduction. On the other hand, the popular name for the virus often starts circulating before the official one is chosen. And these names, often associated with the countries or regions in which they appeared, can be controversial, even deeply offensive. Let's look at some specific cases.

CoV-2

The pandemic currently ravaging the world is associated with a new type of coronavirus - the “novel coronavirus”, as it was called in the early stages. It was originally discovered in Wuhan (China). Scientists eventually named it Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Two, also known as SARS-CoV-2. The name suggests that the coronavirus is a close relative of the SARS virus, first discovered in Asia in 2003. CoV-2 causes the disease known as coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. However, the SARS part of the name was dropped because it was considered too alarmist (the effects of the SARS epidemic in 2003 were still fresh in people's minds) - ultimately only CoV-2 remained. But by then, all sorts of popular names began to spread, such as the Chinese virus, the Wuhan flu, which were not very tolerant and had a “negative impact on countries, economies and people,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

H1N1

Like CoV-2, H1N1 influenza actually has a longer official name: A/California/04/2009(H1N1). It is in accordance with WHO guidelines put forward in 1980. They name the virus according to the type of host it infects, its place of origin, the year it was isolated, and the type of protein antigen—all indicated by letters and numbers. Here is their breakdown: this is the common influenza type A, first isolated in California, the fourth virus of this type, which was discovered in 2009, and its special proteins - hemagglutinin type 1 and neuraminidase type 1.

This virus is also commonly known as swine flu, as it is similar to the viruses commonly found in pigs. Despite the fact that the virus was not transmitted to people when they ate infected pork, this name created a problem for farmers who witnessed a decrease in sales due to the virus. Some countries, including China, Russia and Ukraine, even banned the import of pork from Mexico, where the virus was suspected of killing more than 150 people.

On the subject: Unexpected victim of coronavirus: why farmers throw food during an epidemic

MERS-CoV

The name of this type of coronavirus stands for “Middle East respiratory syndrome.” It "has had an unintended negative impact by stigmatizing certain communities or economic sectors," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for health security at the WHO, said in 2015 in response to the organization's decision to change naming standards for viruses. Namely, the tendency to name viruses after a place: this can lead to a negative reaction against religious and ethnic communities, create barriers to travel, trade, and lead to unnecessary slaughter of livestock.

ВИЧ

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes a disease known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which currently affects about 1,1 million people in the United States. When HIV first appeared in the 1980s, it (erroneously) was called homosexuality-related immunodeficiency disease, or GRID. Pacific Standard notes that the name helped spread the so-called gay plague until scientists discovered that the infection also infects heterosexuals and hemophiliacs. The original name was not only offensive, but also “could have hindered Congressional control efforts ... because it was called the“ niche liberal issue. ” HIV / AIDS is one of the diseases that began as an epidemic and escalated into a pandemic.

Bird flu

Viruses that originate in birds are rarely transmitted to humans. There are two types of avian influenza that are of particular concern. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of them first appeared in China in 2013 and is called Asian H7N9, which is short for avian influenza A of Asian origin: A is the type of influenza, H7N9 is the types of proteins it contains hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Another type was first discovered in humans in 1997 and has had several recurrences over the years. It was called Asian Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A (H5N1), although you may see “Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza” abbreviated to HPAI.

On the subject: All you wanted to know about coronavirus but were embarrassed to ask: WHO answers

Ebola fever

When this devastating virus first appeared in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1976, it had no name. The situation changed when it reappeared in 2014 in West Africa. CDC researchers searching for a suitable name for the virus decided they couldn't name it after the small town where it originated for fear of stigmatization. They wanted to name it after the river closest to this city, but there was already another virus named after the Congo (Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus). It was eventually named after another river, Ebola, adding to the long list of viruses named after places of origin. Among them are West Nile virus, discovered in 1937, Coxsackie virus, discovered in 1948 (Coxsackie is a city in New York), Marburg virus, discovered in 1967 (Marburg is a city in Germany), and Hendra virus, identified in 1994 (Hendra - a suburb of Brisbane, Australia).

Norovirus

This type of "stomach" flu gets its name from where it was first discovered - in a group of schoolchildren in Norwalk, Ohio, back in 1968. Norwalk was soon shortened to Noro. The name Norovirus is now being used "as a generic term for the Norwalk virus and its relatives," Stat News reports. This is one of the many diseases you can prevent by simply washing your hands.

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