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Novel coronavirus

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This article is about the naming of newly discovered coronaviruses. For the 2019 virus, see 2019 novel coronavirus. For the ongoing outbreak, see 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
Look up nCoV or novel coronavirus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is any recently discovered coronavirus of medical significance not yet permanently named. Although coronaviruses are endemic in humans and infections are normally mild (such as the common cold, which is caused by human coronaviruses in about 15% of cases), cross-species transmission has produced some unusually virulent strains which can cause viral pneumonia and in serious cases even acute respiratory distress syndrome.[1][2][3]

Species

The following species could initially be referred to as "novel coronavirus", often with retroactive prepending of the year of discovery, before being given a permanent designation:

Human pathogenic novel coronaviridae species
Initial name Officially named Informal names Original host[a] Place of discovery Disease caused
2019-nCoV COVID-19 Wuhan virus, Wuhan coronavirus, seafood market pneumonia virus snakes, pangolins, bats Wuhan, China 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (provisional name)[b]
2012-nCoV Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV)[c] MERS virus, camel flu virus camels, bats Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
2005-nCoV human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1) New Haven virus mice Hong Kong, China unnamed, rare, mostly mild variant of coronavirus respiratory syndrome
2002-nCoV severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV) SARS virus civets, bats Foshan, China severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
  1. ^ host jump capability may not persist
  2. ^ synonyms include 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia, anilingosa sinensium tedrosi and Wuhan respiratory syndrome
  3. ^ strains include HCoV-EMC/2012 and London1 novel CoV/2012

Etymology

The word "novel" indicates a "new pathogen of a previously known type" (i.e. known family) of virus. Use of the word conforms to best practices for naming new infectious diseases published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015. Historically, pathogens have sometimes been named after locations, individuals, or specific species. However, this practice is now explicitly discouraged by the WHO.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ Murray and Nadel (2010). Chapter 31.
  2. ^ Cunha (2010). pp. 6–18.
  3. ^ Melmed 2011, pp. 636
  4. ^ World Health Organization Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases. World Health Organization. May 2015.
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