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Discovered a Disease? WHO Has New Rules for Avoiding Offensive Names

posted by cmn32480 on Saturday December 12 2015, @03:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the political-correctness-gone-more-rediculous dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

From ScienceMag.org:

The World Health Organization (WHO) mostly works to reduce the physical toll of disease. But last week it turned to another kind of harm: the insult and stigma inflicted by diseases named for people, places, and animals. Among the existing monikers that its new guidelines "for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases" would discourage: Ebola, swine flu, Rift Valley Fever, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and monkey pox. Instead, WHO says researchers, health officials, and journalists should use more neutral, generic terms, such as severe respiratory disease or novel neurologic syndrome.

Many scientists agree that disease names can be problematic, but they aren't sure the new rulebook is necessarily an improvement. "It will certainly lead to boring names and a lot of confusion," predicts Linfa Wang, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong. "You should not take political correctness so far that in the end no one is able to distinguish these diseases," says Christian Drosten, a virologist at the University of Bonn, Germany.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @04:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @04:51PM (#275443)

    Or should that be Donald Warm but Foul Smelling Emission of Air from the Anus?

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:09PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:09PM (#275444) Journal

    You fool - the more you dis The Donald, the more popular he gets. STFU unless you're on his side. If you brag on him, he'll probably lose popularity. I'm pretty much amused at the whole circus, but people can't live on bread and circus forever.

    http://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828086/donald-trump-media [vox.com]

    http://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459207587/surprised-about-donald-trumps-popularity-you-shouldnt-be [npr.org]

    --
    We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:31PM (#275453)

      Unelectable! [telegraph.co.uk]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:49PM (#275458)

      Daily reminder that you can't stump the Trump [youtube.com].