TOPICS

Terminology

By Dr Deepu Changappa Cheriamane

The World Health Organization originally called this illness "novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia (NCIP)", and the virus itself had been provisionally named "2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)" .
On 11 February 2020, the WHO officially renamed the clinical condition COVID-19 (a shortening of COronaVIrus Disease-19) 15. Coincidentally, on the same day, the Coronavirus Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses renamed the virus "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" (SARS-CoV-2). The names of both the disease and the virus should be fully capitalized, except for the 'o' in the viral name, which is in lowercase. 
The official virus name is similar to SARS-CoV-1, the virus strain that caused epidemic severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2004, potentially causing confusion 38. The WHO has stated it will use "COVID-19 virus" or the "virus that causes COVID-19" instead of its official name, SARS-CoV-2 when communicating with the public.

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