Diseases with seemingly offensive names aren't exactly uncommon. In 2010, for instance, the international journal The Lancet was roundly castigated in India (and almost caused Arnab Goswami to burst a blood vessel) when it published a paper describing a superbug that was resistant to almost all antibiotics. The organism was christened New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 or simply NDM-1. The journal’s editor had to issue an apology after Indians claimed their capital had been stigmatised.
That kind of outcry may soon become a thing of the past. Last week, the World Health Organisation last week advised scientists, national authorities, and international media avoiding including the names of people, places and animals while labelling new diseases. The WHO thinks the measure will protect trade, travel, tourism and animal welfare from negative perceptions. The WHO is also hoping that disease naming will cease to give offense.
Eponymous disease names have been changed to less abrasive and more accurate versions in the past. In the 1980s, Gay Related Immune Deficiency or GRID was also known as 4H-Disease, the four Hs referring to Haitians, homosexuals, haemophiliacs and heroin users. But in time, it became Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Mongolism, meanwhile, was renamed Down’s syndrome and Mexican swine flu has become H1N1.
The new WHO guidelines recommend that disease names should not include geographical locations, people’s names or species and classes of animals or food. It also asks that the nomenclature avoid occupations like legionnaires or miners or cooks. If these diseases were to be named in 2015, there would be no Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS; no Chagas disease; no bird flu, swine flu, monkey pox or paralytic shellfish poisoning.
If you had the first ever case of poisoning by a paralytic shellfish now, you might find your doctor describing your neurologic deterioration and the parts of your anatomy affected in an attempt to name your affliction. The WHO recommends that only descriptive terms like clinical symptoms, age groups, severity seasonality and environment be used in disease names. It also allows for a date or identifier like “alpha” or numeral to be tagged on to the name.
All that’s left for us to fall sick with will be illnesses with complicated but medically accurate and possible highly abbreviated names. But can a dog-bite still be called a dog-bite?
Here are a few disease names that the WHO may not now approve of.
Jumping Frenchmen of Maine: A hyperactive startle response that was seen in French Canadian lumberjacks in North Maine in the 1870s. The name might now be perceived as offensive to the French, the residents of Maine and possibly high jumpers?
Tsutsugamushi disease: This is one name you might be glad not to have to say. Given that the WHO has written of naming diseases after all species and classes of animals, Tsutsugamushi disease makes the list even though it’s unlikely that the mites it is named for will be culled or take offence. The infectious disease seen in Japan, Indiaand Australia is characterised by fever, headaches, rashes and swollen glands.
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome or Todd’s Syndrome: Named by English psychiatrist John Todd after the Lewis Carroll novel, people with this disorder perceive parts of their body to be changing size.
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That kind of outcry may soon become a thing of the past. Last week, the World Health Organisation last week advised scientists, national authorities, and international media avoiding including the names of people, places and animals while labelling new diseases. The WHO thinks the measure will protect trade, travel, tourism and animal welfare from negative perceptions. The WHO is also hoping that disease naming will cease to give offense.
Eponymous disease names have been changed to less abrasive and more accurate versions in the past. In the 1980s, Gay Related Immune Deficiency or GRID was also known as 4H-Disease, the four Hs referring to Haitians, homosexuals, haemophiliacs and heroin users. But in time, it became Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Mongolism, meanwhile, was renamed Down’s syndrome and Mexican swine flu has become H1N1.
The new WHO guidelines recommend that disease names should not include geographical locations, people’s names or species and classes of animals or food. It also asks that the nomenclature avoid occupations like legionnaires or miners or cooks. If these diseases were to be named in 2015, there would be no Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS; no Chagas disease; no bird flu, swine flu, monkey pox or paralytic shellfish poisoning.
If you had the first ever case of poisoning by a paralytic shellfish now, you might find your doctor describing your neurologic deterioration and the parts of your anatomy affected in an attempt to name your affliction. The WHO recommends that only descriptive terms like clinical symptoms, age groups, severity seasonality and environment be used in disease names. It also allows for a date or identifier like “alpha” or numeral to be tagged on to the name.
All that’s left for us to fall sick with will be illnesses with complicated but medically accurate and possible highly abbreviated names. But can a dog-bite still be called a dog-bite?
Here are a few disease names that the WHO may not now approve of.
Jumping Frenchmen of Maine: A hyperactive startle response that was seen in French Canadian lumberjacks in North Maine in the 1870s. The name might now be perceived as offensive to the French, the residents of Maine and possibly high jumpers?
Tsutsugamushi disease: This is one name you might be glad not to have to say. Given that the WHO has written of naming diseases after all species and classes of animals, Tsutsugamushi disease makes the list even though it’s unlikely that the mites it is named for will be culled or take offence. The infectious disease seen in Japan, Indiaand Australia is characterised by fever, headaches, rashes and swollen glands.
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome or Todd’s Syndrome: Named by English psychiatrist John Todd after the Lewis Carroll novel, people with this disorder perceive parts of their body to be changing size.
