The UN agency finally announces the name of coronavirus originating from China. As per the UN agency statement the Coronavirus originating from China will be officially called “COVID-19”. WHO said that this virus is “very grave threat” which should be stopped.
Virus outbreaks are one of the most horrifying phenomenons in today’s world. Virus, fungi and other microscopic elements are always present around us and it depends entirely on its character, whether it is harmful for the living beings or not. The risk is always present, as a virus can attack the nervous system of living entities and can cause severe health problems and sometimes even death. One such recent virus outbreak took place in the Wuhan City of China. The virus, known as Corona has already affected more than forty thousand people worldwide and it does not seem like stopping anytime soon. Many major cities in China has already been evacuated to protect the people who were staying there and all connecting transport facilities has also been cut off. People in China are living in a state of terror and the government along with other organizations is trying to restrict the outbreak as soon as possible.
After all these events, WHO has finally named the virus as COVID-19. Here, “CO” is corona, “VI” stands for virus and “D” stands for disease. The name COVID-19 was revealed by the director general of WHO, Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva. In 2019, the virus was initially called 2019-nCoV or the Wuhan coronavirus because of its origin. In case of naming the virus, WHO did not rely on its origin or on its sole effects on human, rather they have stuck with their standard format. This will also help in naming a virus of the same category in future. Thus keeping all these factors in mind, WHO has officially declared the name as COVID-19.
The name coronavirus actually originated from the Latin word “corona”; corona means crown in Latin. This virus has a sphere like shape and there are spikes all over it, which can be seen through a microscope. Naming of a virus is very important, as it reduces the chances of confusion and gives a lot of clarity while treating affected people. It is mandatory to name every new virus that gets discovered and identified properly by scientists. According to the reports, COVID-19 is connected to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome category. Both these virus are very dangerous in nature and have caused numerous deaths in the past.
Previously, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses known as ICTV was given the task to name the coronavirus. There is a list of guidelines maintained by WHO, which needs to be strictly followed while naming any virus. The guidelines have restricted the use of any place, region or animal, while deciding the name of the virus. The name has to be decided solely depending on its affect and nature, and not according to the place of its origin. WHO is taking extra precaution to make sure origin based names like Zika and Ebola do not get used again. Even names like swine flu has not been appreciated in any manner due to its poor impact on the meat industry.