Corona Related English Words and Their Meanings Part 2

Due to the increase of COVID -19 disease worldwide, speaking about coronavirus disease became a part of our daily life. As the talking about corona increased, the words related to corona also increased and became prevalent. But we may not know the exact meaning of the words which we heard from TVs , Newspaper, Social Media, etc. Then we google for it, search and then may understand a little about them. But to make it easy for you, we have consolidated the important words which are relevant to corona. Even though we try to contain most of the words in one part, the pressure of the container made the part 1 of the article lengthy. So we have created part 2. Are you ready to explore more?

Corona Related English Words and Their Meanings Part 2

1) Communicable disease:

Communicable disease is an illness which spreads from one living being to another.

Explanation:

Communicable diseases are the diseases which spreads from one human to another. It means the microorganisms which are responsible for the disease will spread from one person to another and eventually to a group of people.

Example:

Global social distancing rules targeting coronavirus have pushed influenza infection rates to a record low, early figures show, signalling that the measures are having an unprecedented impact on other communicable diseases.

2) Contagious disease:

Contagious disease means the disease which spread from one person to another person through the contact of infections.

Explanation:

Contagious disease means disease which spread through the contact of another infected person, his respiratory droplets, etc.

Contagious disease and communicable disease are almost same but contagious disease spreads through the direct contact of infected items and communicable disease spreads indirectly.

For instance, if a man touches the respiratory droplet of infected person and the virus spread to that man then the disease is called contagious disease.

If a mosquito bites an infected person and then bites another one person. Now the second person gets the virus and gets illness. This is an indirect method. So, this disease is called communicable disease.

Example:

His friend is affected by a contagious disease and so he should be quarantined to stop the spreading of the disease further.

3) Community transmission / Community spread:

Community transmission or community spread means the spread of the disease in a group or people, but the source of the disease cannot be identified.

Explanation:

Sometimes the diseases spread in a group of people, but we cannot find the details of how they spread, from where it starts to spread, what is the cause of it, etc. The spread of the disease in an unidentifiable way is called community transmission or community spread.

Example:

India is in the company of Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait, as countries that maintain they have not reached the community transmission stage despite having over 50,000 cases of Covid-19.

4) epidemic:

Epidemic is an outbreak of a disease which spreads faster and wider in a large area at a same time.

Explanation:

In a certain time, a disease may widespread faster and affect many people. This situation is called epidemic.

Example:

India’s coronavirus epidemic is now growing at the fastest in the world, increasing 20% over the last week to more than 1.4 million confirmed cases, according to Bloomberg’s Coronavirus Tracker.

5) Ventilator:

Ventilator is a machine which helps the patient to breath, or it will do the process of breathing if that patient cannot breathe.

Explanation:

If a person is affected by a disease or something else and such that the person is not able to breathe then the ventilator machine breathes instead of that person or helps him to breathe.

Example:

An increasing number of U.S. covid-19 patients are surviving after they are placed on mechanical ventilators.

6) Incubation period:

The period of developing symptoms in a body by a disease-causing agent is called incubation period.

Explanation:

If a virus, bacteria or some other disease creating agents enter a person’s body immediately we may not recognise it. But after some time, we feel illness due the arising symptoms like fever, headache, etc. The time period from the entering and the cause of symptoms is called incubation period.

Example:

The incubation period of COVID-19 is somewhere between 2-14 days.

7) PCR testing:

The testing of the presence of RNA or DNA of disease-causing agents is called PCR testing.

Explanation:

PCR testing stands for Polymerise Chain Reaction. It is the test used to test the presence of virus, bacteria, etc. in a person’s body. Using this test, we can analyse whether the person is affected by a disease or not.

Example:

Thyrocare (a company) initially started with conducting 200-300 PCR tests a day but have scaled up the testing over the months and are now testing about 2500-3000 people a day.

8) Antibody:

An antibody is a Y shaped protective protein component of the immune system that circulates in the blood, recognizes foreign substances like bacteria and viruses, and neutralizes them.

Explanation:

An antibody is a y shaped protein produced by B – Cell (White blood cells, part of immune system). It is also called as immunoglobulin (Ig). When an antigen (pathogen – disease causing agent) enters the body, B cells, the part of immune system, produce the antibodies. They bind with the antigens and stops them to function. So that our cells of the body are protected.

Example:

If test results show that you have antibodies, it indicates that you were likely infected with COVID-19 at some time in the past.

9) SARS:

SARS stands for Severe acute respiratory syndrome. It is a contagious disease which makes fever and cough and sometimes cause respiratory failure. SARS disease is caused by SARS-CoV (SARS Coronavirus) which is a type of virus in the family of coronavirus.

Explanation:

SARS first appeared in China in November 2002. Within a few months, SARS spread worldwide, carried by unsuspecting travellers.

Most people with SARS start feeling ill with a fever, chills, and body aches, and then develop pneumonia. A total of 8,096 people was infected with SARS, and 774 people died as a result of the illness. Containment efforts were successful and there have been no reported cases of the virus since 2004.

Example:

China confirms SARS infection in two previously reported cases.

10) MERS:

MERS stands for Middle East respiratory syndrome. MERS is a viral respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERSā€CoV) that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Explanation:

MERS-Cov is also a type of virus in the family of Coronavirus. Most MERS patients developed severe respiratory illness with symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath. About 3 or 4 out of every 10 patients reported with MERS have died. At the end of November 2019, a total of 2494 laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), including 858 associated deaths.

Example:

Going by the fatality rates, COVID-19 appears to be relatively milder compared to SARS and MERS, which belong to the same coronavirus family of viruses.

Note:

Coronavirus is a large family of virus which causes respiratory related diseases.

Three commonly known coronaviruses are as follows;

  • Virus Name: SARS – Cov (Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus)

Disease Name: SARS

  • Virus Name: MERS – Cov (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus)

Disease Name: MERS

  • Virus Name: SARS – COV 2 (Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2)

Disease Name: COVID - 19

11) Proning:

Proning is the practice of repositioning a patient in their hospital bed so they are lying on their stomach or on their side rather than on their back.

Explanation:

If a patient is suffering from certain respiratory diseases, then the Patient may be repositioned so that they are lying on their stomach. Doctors have discovered that for patients with COVID-19, redistributing body weight this way can improve oxygen saturation levels by “opening up” parts of the lung, in many cases reducing the need for a ventilator.

Example:

A study by Oxford researchers has found putting Covid-19 patients in a prone position can help save lives.

12) Self-quarantine:

To refrain from any contact with other individuals for a period of time.

Explanation:

 To reduce transmission of a contagious disease during an outbreak, individuals are typically asked by health officials to not contact any one for a certain period of time. This period of time is usually the period in which the symptoms will start if the person is affected by that contagious disease. So that if that person affected by virus it will not be spread further and the person is easily identified for treatment.

Example:

Shinji Inoue, Japanese minister in charge of the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, has announced the end of his self-quarantine at home over the novel coronavirus on Saturday.

13) Herd immunity / Community immunity:

Herd immunity (herd protection) is a phenomenon where a large part of an area or a community of people become immune to an infectious disease, which effectively stops the disease from spreading and protects the entire community.

Explanation:

If a large group of people got immunity by natural body immune protection or by vaccine, these people will not affect by a certain disease. It means that the disease will not spread to other people through these people. So eventually this shows a protection of many people from that contagious disease. So this protection against this disease is called herd immunity.

Example:

Top Chinese disease experts said the COVID-19 pandemic is very likely to continue to spread throughout the spring months and herd immunity should be achieved through world-wide vaccination.

14) Flattening the curve:

It is a graph created showing the maximum number of people can be infected by a contagious disease over every period of time.

Explanation:

Normally, a curve is plotted in the graph of the total number of people possibly affected by a contagious disease like COVID – 19. Because this disease spread must faster the total number of people affected will be much higher. Then the country’s health care system can not handle these higher number of patients. In this case the curve will be much steeper. So, flattening the curve term is introduced. It means to flatten the curve from steep. If the disease spread is slowed down using techniques like social distancing, self-quarantine, etc., the number of affected people in a certain time is reduced. Then the health care departments can easily handle this. This process of slowing down the disease spread even though it can not be stopped is called flattening the curve.

Its like rather than doing all works in one week by limited available staffs, by splitting the works and doing it in some months. So that without high pressure all the works can be finished effectively and efficiently without any problems.

Example:

To the flatten the curve of COVID – 19, everyone must follow the safety procedures like social distancing, self-quarantine, wearing mask, etc.

15) Clinical trials:

These are types of research that study the effectiveness and safety of medications (such as vaccines) by monitoring their effects on large groups of people.

Explanation:

For new disease or the old disease for which still vaccine is not invented, the vaccine will be developed by health researchers. Even though it is tested in the lab, animal and individual people, it may fail for the large group of people. So, a vaccine will be generally accepted by health authorities if it cures the disease of a large group of people. So, the process of analysing the newly invented vaccine by giving them to affected people under carefully controlled observation is called clinical trials.

Example:

The phase 3 human clinical trial of the coronavirus vaccine 'Covishield', developed by Oxford University and being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), will begin at a state-run hospital in Pune next week.

16) Cluster:

This refers to a small group of people affected by the same disease in a particular place.

Explanation:

Generally, cluster means a group of things similar things or people. In medical field cluster means the group of people affected by the same disease.

Example:

 Today, a COVID – 19 cluster has emerged at Elderwood at Amherst, with 21 residents – 36% of its current 59 residents – having tested positive in the past several weeks.

17) Disinfectant:

Disinfectant is an chemical agent designed to inactivate or destroy microorganisms.

Explanation:

To kill or make the bacteria inactive (not function), chemical agent is produced. This chemical agent is called disinfectant.

Example:

The main findings were that the virus can be efficiently inactivated within one minute by disinfectants found in common cleaning products over a minimum concentration, including 62% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide and 0.1% sodium hypochlorite — a type of bleach.

18) Infodemic:

an excessive amount of information about a problem

Explanation:

When there is too much information about something, then it means Infodemic. This means some information may be true and some information may be false, and it is difficult to find out which one is true. Often people will be confused to identify the true information. This type of excessive information is called Infodemic.

Example:

  • Fighting the Covid-19 infodemic requires not only facts, but also the coordinated and strategic advocacy.
  • An infodemic can make it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.

19) Hotspot:

A small public area with a relatively highly affected persons of a virus.

Explanation:

The area in which large number of people affected by a virus is called hotspot. The area is earmarked based on probability of high degree of spread. The people are not allowed to enter or exit from a hotspot area. The Govt. is supposed to do sanitation of these hotspot areas. Hotspots change based on the inputs and data of spread of virus.

Example:

Markets emerge as hotspots with maximum violation of mask & social distancing norms.

20) WHO:

WHO stands for World Health Organisation. It is a specialised agency of the United Nations. It is responsible for international public health.

Explanation:

WHO is an organisation established on 7 April 1948 for the coordination of international public health by improving the public health condition. We celebrate this date as World Health Day. Their primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations system.

Example:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic as the novel coronavirus continues to rapidly spread worldwide.

If you do not understand any of the meaning described above, then please comment in the comment section below. Also if you feel some of the common words related to corona are not added in this article, you can also post here. We may add it in the future. 

If you are not satisfied and want to learn more words (around 40 words) then follow the link below to the previous part

Corona Related English Words and Their Meanings Part 1

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