Where do the names of diseases come from?

When we learn of the emergence of a new disease that is wreaking havoc in a country or even around the world, we seek to inform ourselves of the causes, symptoms and ways to avoid it.

We rarely badyze the name of the disease. disease and who called it so.

However, the names of diseases have enormous political, economic and social weight.

"When a new threat to life arises, The first and most urgent concern is to name it ," says science journalist Laura Spinney in her book "Pale Cavalier: The 1918 Spanish flu and how it changed the world. "

Spinney explained to BBC Radio 4's" Word of Mouth "program (Boca a boca) why the denomination is so important.

"It's very difficult to talk about something that does not have a name and it's even harder to fight it – name, you can talk about it, discuss possible solutions, adopt or reject those solutions, to send a message of public health and ask people to comply, "he said.

"I think there is nothing more scary than something that has no name and you do not know what is," he added.

However, sometimes, when an infectious disease appears, the authorities rush to name it before even knowing all its symptoms and effects. And sometimes these names ended up being erroneous or confused.

An example cited by the expert was the pandemic known as swine influenza published in 2009.

"This is probably a transmission of pigs to humans. but the reason why she became a dangerous disease is that was infected between humans "he said.

The name chosen had serious consequences: many countries banned imports of pork and in Egypt they took the radical decision of to slaughter all pigs : about 300 000 animals raised mainly by the Copts, a Christian minority.

The Spanish flu did not appear in Spain

The most famous case of misdiagnosed disease is the worst flu epidemic in history, making over 50 million deaths worldwide in 1918 and 1919.

A Today, 100 years later, we continue to talk about the Spanish flu.

However, "the illness was nothing particularly Spanish," Spinney said.

"It touched Spain but did not start In Spain, we think it probably started in the United States, although we do not know for sure," he said. he declares.

as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the nations at war, which banned the reporting of influenza so as not to weaken the morale of the population. "

" It is thus that the Spaniards began to report the first case occurring in Madrid several months after the first cases in the United States. – Something they did not know – the rest of the world thought the disease had appeared in Madrid and they called it the Spanish flu. "

Typical Names

Despite this error, the truth is that naming a disease for the place where it appeared – or which one thinks it emerged – was still very common.

The Linguist Laura Wright cites several examples at the BBC, such as l Maltese Fever, Mediterranean Fever or Lyme Disease, named after the small town of Connecticut, USA, where she was discovered for the first time. first time.

Wright explained that in the distant past, before there were scientists expert in viruses and bacteria, the diseases also bore names. varicella called varicella by chicken or scrofula, which in this language means "little breeding sow".

Other origin of the names had to do with co The victims were seen or acted after the contagion, for example the the smallpox ( smallpox ), so called in English because of the small marks left on the face.

Modern times, some diseases have also been named according to the person who has suffered them. Legionnaire's Disease is an example of this, as the first known victims were American Legion participants participating in a hotel convention in 1976.

Many conditions also bear these names. of scientists who identified the cause, such as listeriosis (named by the English surgeon Joseph Lister), Down syndrome or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (also known as the version name of mad cow disease)

Stigma

Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and professor of global health, told the BBC that many experts would now consider it As if in bad taste. his name to identify a deadly disease.

In 1976, Piot was one of the scientists who had discovered Ebola an illness that they had decided to call so a distant river.

The expert pointed out that the traditional way of naming diseases by the place where they would have occurred causes a lot of stigmatization.

"When you identify an illness with the name of a country that may have a political connotation and which also has enormous consequences : the borders are closed, the flights to that destination are canceled.This has huge consequences for the entire economy of this country. "

To avoid it, in 2015, the World Organization of Health (WHO) has issued new rules for naming diseases and avoiding the mistakes of the past.

"The name should not stigmatize or name specific places, animals or human groups.You must avoid the alarming words like" fatal "or" unknown "and you must be neutral," Piot enumerated. 19659012] Danger

However, Laura Spinney warned that a neutral name, not mentioning the source of the contagion and avoiding to raise an alarm This could be dangerous.

"I think the l & # 39; WHO's intention of avoiding stigma and discrimination was good, but in this context a name should alert people and should clarify which these are the potential sources of infection to avoid . I have the feeling that this will not happen with the new rules, "he said.

" These tasteless and forgettable names are not going to alert people because they will not know what we are talking about. "] The science journalist pointed out that sometimes naming things by name could have a positive effect.

" It is now thought that the next influenza pandemic could come from domestic poultry, but under the new rules, we could not say it ", as an example.

" Sometimes giving the name of the origin puts pressure on a sector to avoid the risk being even greater. For example, & # 39; Avian Influenza & # 39; suggests some responsibilities for the agricultural sector and the governments that regulate it. "

" But if you remove this information from its name, the pressure will be less and nobody will be bound. take charge. "

The experts agree that there is no specific person or group who decides on the name of an illness: may be a doctor, a politician, a bureaucrat or a journalist .

And the truth is that there are no rules. "The most eye-catching name is the one that lasts," Spinney said.

The linguist Wright, foresaw that the new WHO guidelines would not have much effect.

the rules badume that there is a power capable of controlling the language and that it does not exist. People will call it as they want ", he synthesized.