The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world in a number of ways and has brought decades of debate about naming diseases back to the spirit of the times. The scientific name can always be used whenever there is a disease worldwide. However, no matter how vague or problematic this nickname is, the public gives their own name, such as "Russian flu" or "German measles" (among many others).
This isn't the first time the world has become part of a pandemic, and it's not the first time the disease has a regional name. In fact, some have justified their favorite name for the novel coronavirus using earlier examples, such as the common name of 1918 "Latin American influenza". When millions of people died of influenza, the Spanish flu got its name despite not having outbreaks in Spain and in most cases hitting the country.
However, just because these incorrect names have occurred before does not mean that they should continue. There seems to be a reason why humanity decided not to name diseases after people and places.
10. West Nile Virus:
The type of virus that caused encephalitis in the United States in 2002 was first identified in Uganda in 1937, but the area has a suspicious honor that it bears the name West Nile virus.
Commonly transmitted by mosquitoes, this infection affected 4,000 people in North America alone in 2002, leading to dozens of accidents and cases to this day. Although mosquitoes have received most of the blame for West Nile virus, mosquitoes have a rather confusing name that has created racist beliefs about its origins.
This belief is pointless, as the 2012 event, when a 2012 Greek Olympic athlete tweeted on Twitter, "There are so many Africans in Greece... at least they ate homemade food!"
9. Russian Flu :
The pandemic flu broke out in late 1889 and spread to most of the world's west in four months. It first caught public attention when it peaked in St.Petersburg in December. Soon after, when the czar himself fell ill, the "Russian flu" got his official name.
Despite the lack of air travel, the 1889 influenza outbreak traveled across Europe and across the Atlantic to North America, killing about a million people. When elementary school epidemiologists realized that the flu was spreading along human transport routes, he had long left Russia.
8. Hong Kong Flu :
The H3N2 influenza outbreak of 1968 came to be known as the “Hong Kong Flu” after first being identified in Hong Kong in July of that year. However, most believe that it actually evolved from the same strain that caused the 1957 pandemic. Within weeks, the illness had spread well beyond the region.
This particular pandemic had a unique path, traveling throughout Asia and then to the United States via soldiers returning from Vietnam. It then made its way from the US over the ocean and throughout Europe.
Fortunately, the outbreak resulted in fewer fatalities than previous influenza incidents - between 1 and 4 million worldwide. Unfortunately, its nickname led to more of the same anti-Asian discrimination that had occurred during the 1957 pandemic.
7. German Measles ( Rubella ) :
Today, commonly known as rubella, the virus has a different name today German measles, and this name causes problems for a number of reasons. First of all, this disease has nothing to do with measles. Second, the distinction between measles and rubella was supported by this nickname in 1814 by the German physician George de Mathon.
Yes, a German doctor did a good job of the world knowing that rubella wasn't the same as measles, and that the whole world was compensated for by calling it German measles. And if you need evidence that this nickname caused the virus associated with the German people, keep in mind that in the first place, because of anti-German sentiment, Americans started calling it a "freedom struggle". World War II.
De Maton proposed the name "Rötheln" for the virus, but it turned out to be less memorable than German measles. Even when British doctor Henry Veal coined the term rubella in 1866, it took decades to become widespread.
6. Zika Virus :
The Zika virus is named after a special forest in Uganda, where researchers studying the spread of yellow fever first isolated the Zika virus from a monkey sample in 1947. Five years later, the first human casualties were identified in Uganda, Tanzania, and mosquitoes. -The virus has spread. It continues to spread from there. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health crisis after a massive outbreak in South America in early 2016.
A panic soon swept the North American beaches after the Zika virus outbreak in Brazil, especially during the Rio Olympics, with reports of the birth of a baby with microcephaly to an infected mother. Despite all the evidence linking these two phenomena, the fact that this latest epidemic occurred in Latin America has sparked greater fear and discrimination against immigrants south of the border in the United States.
Once again, the old prejudice of being a contagious foreigner with a disease had an ugly head. This time, the prejudice was aimed at the name of the virus and the local people responsible for the outbreak.
5. Asian Flu ( Influenza A virus subtype H2N2 ):
When the H2N2 flu hit China and quickly spread to surrounding countries in early 1957, the rest of the world didn't waste time calling it "Asian flu." In this particular case, it was dangerous to define an epidemic based on its source.
When the H2N2 outbreak spread to the United States in the summer of 1957, the initial impact was rather weak and I thought the epidemic was over soon. But when the children returned to school the following fall, a second pandemic began, killing tens of thousands of people.
By the end of all this, the so-called Asian flu killed about 116,000 Americans and more than a million people worldwide. North American newspapers clarified who they think they're going to blame with headlines like "Ontario-Asian Flu" and more.
He sticks to the name and adds that the outbreak has long been a hallmark of Asian immigrants and Asian communities in the United States. Decades ago, Walter Wyman, chief surgeon in the United States, described the case of Sun Fest in San Francisco as "the rice-eating disease of the East."
4. Mexican' Swine Flu (2009 swine flu pandemic in Mexico):
The first outbreaks of H1N1 influenza in the United States in 2009 and 2010, commonly known as swine flu. Some researchers thought it was similar to the disease found in North American pigs. Over time, contact with pigs has become more obscure, and it has become clear that this is another virus that is mainly transmitted from person to person. However, many have already painted their own prejudice using the confusing roots of the pandemic.
Many politicians, media representatives, and the public have demanded that H1N1 be taken to the United States by infected pigs or Mexicans despite all evidence pointing to its origins within the United States border. Then they tried to justify discriminating against immigrants with fake health problems. Some media outlets have called it the "Mexican flu" and either immigrants volunteered for "bioterrorism," or terrorists directly promoted the pervasive conspiracy theory that terrorists use to attack America. flu.
During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Senator John Conin pointed out that the swine flu came from China and used it to criticize the country for COVID-19. It has not yet recovered until March of that year.
3. AIDS And GRID :
The human immunodeficiency (or HIV) virus, the virus that causes AIDS, is thought to have been transmitted from chimpanzees to humans around 1920, but was not identified until 1981. United States of America. ...
This led to the misconception that this disease was in some way related to sexuality, and as a result it was originally called "gay immunosuppression" or GRID. Other nicknames, such as the gay plague, were much more vulnerable. This shade will hurt in numerous ways, many of which are related to each other.
Only homosexual and bisexual men are infected, and the subsequent misidentification of HIV through needle-sharing drug addicts has prevented many people, including governments and healthcare workers, from taking the threat seriously. The pandemic continues and tens of millions of people are already dying of AIDS-related diseases.
As expected, homophobia has risen in a society that is already highly homophobic, with LGBTQ+ people unjustly portrayed as carriers of the disease rather than victims. The effects of the panic are still felt today as homosexual and bisexual men are still unable to donate due to the FDA's HIV regulations.
This discrimination has contributed to the continued spread of HIV in the gay community, and gay and bisexual men are still at higher risk of HIV infection than the general public. This is in part due to serious mistakes that are currently being corrected, with shame and discrimination leading to a lack of education and the promotion of safe sex.
2. Ebola :
The Ebola outbreak, which hit West Africa from 2014 to 2016 and killed more than 11,000 people, drew global attention with 11 cases reported in North America. Ebola, belonging to the Congo River, not far from where it was first discovered by many in the United States, was called a black disease. Panic leads to racial prejudice.
The disease, first outbreak in Texas, triggered a nationwide shameful response, sending Rwandan elementary school students home for three weeks, despite no Ebola outbreaks in Rwanda at the time. Black footballers shouted and shouted "Ebola!" in high school. In the field.
For many, the epidemic and the convenient name of Africa have provided an opportunity to revive the old prejudice of the contagious nature of immigrants from the continent.
1. Spanish Flu (1918 flu pandemic) :
There could be no greater injustice in naming the disease than in the Spanish influenza. Between 1918 and 1920, the pandemic killed at least 50 million people and infected 30% of the world's population. Ultimately, Spain is responsible, but there are questions about where the outbreak began.
The first recorded incident actually took place in Kansas. Researchers agree that the circumstances of the First World War probably contributed to the spread of the epidemic between the military and the population.
As the epidemic spread from France to all over Europe, most countries hesitated to report during wartime panic. But when Spain stepped on neutrality, local media did not hesitate to report the current pandemic. Since the first reports of this came from Madrid, it soon became known as the "Spanish flu".
This has made Spain more responsible than any other country, but in the years since the outbreak it has brought more fear and discrimination against Spaniards and immigrants in general. It has also set a precedent for racial and ethnic disease, a lie that will be a problem for a century.
