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China Terminology ›› 2020, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (2): 5-10.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-8578.2020.02.002

• Column: Naming the Novel Coronavirus and Related Disease • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Consideration and Suggestion for Naming the Novel Coronavirus

ZHANG Dongmei1, JIANG Shibo2,*(), SHI Zhengli3, TAN Wenjie4, LU Hongzhou5, CAO Bin6, ZHANG Wenhong7, LIU Shuwen8, ZHONG Jin9, XIAO Gengfu3, XIE Youhua2, DENG Kai10, ZHAO Jincun11, YANG Zifeng11, SONG Jingdong4, LU Lu2, HUANG Jinghe2, YING Tianlei2, WANG Qiao2, SHI Mang12, XU Jianqing5, AN Jing13, LU Fengmin14, GAO Fu4, SHU Yuelong15, GUO Deyin12,*()   

  • Received:2020-03-23 Online:2020-04-25 Published:2020-04-27
  • Contact: JIANG Shibo,GUO Deyin E-mail:shibojiang@fudan.edu.cn;guodeyin@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Abstract:

A new type of viral pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China in December,2019. On February 11, 2020, WHO named the novel coronavirus disease as COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). On the same day, the novel coronavirus was named as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by the Coronaviridae Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The new name of the virus is not consistent with its disease name and does not completely and truthfully reflect the features of the virus itself, which immediately caused wide concerns and confusion. Based on etiological, epidemiological and clinical data of COVID-19, we propose to name the virus as human coronavirus 2019 (HCoV-19) . The CSG adopted a genome sequence-based method to name 2019-nCoV, which we think is not appropriate for this virus that has caused a distinct disease from SARS caused by SARS-CoV. We suggest that the disease-based method should be employed to name the newly identified human virus that causes a distinct disease.

Key words: coronavirus, pneumonia, 2019-nCoV, HCoV-19, COVID-19

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