Subscribe to our channel! rupt.ly/subscribe World Health Organization (WHO) officials called on member states to take action against stigma related to the novel coronavirus, during a briefing for member states in Geneva on Friday.
"I think the bigger point here is to ensure that some of the actions, some of the reactions internationally, it is the responsibility of us all to ensure there is no stigma associated with this disease, and the unnecessary, unhelpful profiling of individuals based on ethnicity is utterly and completely unacceptable and it needs to stop," said Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme Dr Michael Ryan.
The briefing also saw a discussion related to WHO's assigning the interim name of 2019-nCOV (novel coronavirus) acute respiratory disease to the virus. "We thought it very important that we provide an interim name so no location was associated with the name. I'm sure you have seen many media reports that are still calling this, using the name Wuhan or using China," said WHO epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove. "We wanted to ensure that there was no stigma associated with this virus. And so we've put out an interim name."
Van Kerkhove also said that in preparation for a global research meeting on coronavirus on February 11-12 "the global community around clinical management will be meeting to discuss the research needs to better care for patients infected with novel coronavirus."
The Coronavirus outbreak has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Chinese health officials said that the death toll has reached 630, with more than 30,000 infected in China alone.
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