The UN agency’s official temporary name for the disease, which it has designated as a global health emergency, is “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”. China announced on Saturday that it would temporarily call the disease, which has killed more than 700 people, Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP). Sylvie Briand, head of WHO’s Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, said the use of a place name created “an unnecessary burden”. This had a major effect for the pork industry even though the disease was being spread by people rather than pigs. “We’ve seen certain disease names provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities, create unjustified barriers to travel, commerce and trade, and trigger needless slaughtering of food animals,” the WHO said in its guidelines.

Source: Bangkok Post February 08, 2020 10:07 UTC