Vocabulary Related to Wuhan Coronavirus
- Coronavirus冠狀病毒
- Novel coronavirus新型冠狀病毒
- Confirmed Case確診病患
- Epidemic區域流行的(疾病)
- Pandemic大規模流行的(疾病)
- Emerging disease新興傳染病
- Animal–human interface人畜傳染介面
- Reservoir宿主 (大自然或動物)
- Zoonotic人畜共同傳染病
- Transmission傳播
- Person–to–person Contact人對人傳染
- Droplet飛沫
- Incubation Period潛伏期
- Isolation隔離治療
- Quarantine檢疫隔離(期)
- Contact Tracing接觸者追蹤
- Screening篩檢
- Reproductive Rate or Reproduction Number傳染率
This world is being flooded with unfamiliar words and phrases in coverage of the newly discovered coronavirus. It’s useful to understand relevant medical terms during a time of health crisis.
Coronavirus: This term refers to a category of viruses that can cause fever, breathing difficulties, pneumonia and diarrhea. Some are potentially fatal. Others can cause a certain percentage of common colds. The name comes from the shape of the virus. Coronaviruses originate in animals and are usually not transmissible to humans. But occasionally a coronavirus mutates and can pass from animals to humans and then from human to human.
Novel coronavirus: A coronavirus strain that has not been previously identified. The Wuhan coronavirus, for example, is novel because it is a new respiratory virus that was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
Confirmed Case: A potential case is a person who is likely to have been infected with a specific disease while a confirmed case is a person who has been proven through clinical or laboratory procedures to be infected with the specific disease.
Epidemic: A sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease in a particular geographic area, beyond the number health officials expect. An increase that occurs in a relatively small geographic area or among a small group of people may be called an “outbreak." For example, HIV/AIDS, which affects 1.2 million people in the United States, is an “epidemic." By contrast, two cases of sickness from drinking raw milk in the United States is called an “outbreak."
Pandemic: An epidemic spanning many countries and/or several continents. The difference between an outbreak, an epidemic and a pandemic can be murky and depends on the opinions of scientists and health officials.
Emerging disease: A disease that occurs in the population of a certain geographic region for the first time, or a disease that’s been present at low levels in a region but then rapidly reaches new peaks in the number of cases reported.
Animal-human interface: The points of contact between animals and humans — when people cut down forests and set up dwellings where forest animals are still prevalent, for example. Some types of diseases spread from animals to humans at this interface.
Reservoir: An animal, plant or environment in which a disease can persist for long periods of time. For example, some bats serve as a reservoir for rabies and can spread the disease by biting humans.
Zoonotic: Any disease that spreads from animals to people. The animals can range from tiny ticks to lumbering cattle.
Transmission: How a disease is transferred. This happens in different ways. There’s direct transmission — person-to-person contact and droplet spread. And there’s indirect transmission, for example, consuming contaminated food and water, getting bitten by a disease-carrying mosquito or tick or breathing in a microbe carried by dust.
Person-to-person Contact: How a disease might spread from one person to another. This can happen in many ways – by kissing, touching, having sex, exchanging bodily fluids, sneezing or coughing.
Droplet: The spray produced by sneezing, coughing or even talking. Droplets can spread disease when an infected person coughs or sneezes — and the spray lands on a nearby person’s mouth, nose or eyes. It can also spread when a person touches a body part or a surface with infected droplets, then touches their face.
Incubation Period: the process or period of time in which harmful bacteria or viruses increase in size or number in a person’s or animal’s body but do not yet produce the effects of disease.
Isolation: Separating infected and sick individuals from healthy individuals. Hospitals commonly put sick patients in isolation to prevent the spread of disease.
Quarantine: The separation or restriction of movement of individuals who appear to be healthy but may have been exposed to an infectious disease to see if they become sick.
Contact Tracing: Identifying people who may have come into contact with a person infected with a disease.
Screening: A health check to see whether a person has a disease — often by taking their temperature and then asking questions about symptoms if the temperature is high.
Reproductive Rate: The number of people one victim can infect, known as the reproduction number of a virus or pathogen. SARS, by comparison, was between 2 and 5, and measles, the most contagious disease known to humans, is a whopping 12 to 18.
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