5/9/2015, 2:25 am
WHO issues disease-naming advice to avoid offence
Comrades! The World Health Organization, in the interest of enforcing that everyone feel not-bad about themselves, has issued guidelines for not-naming diseases.
Some things to not-name diseases:
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director general for health security at the WHO, said: "This may seem like a trivial issue to come, but disease names really do matter to the people who are directly affected."
Let us march forward into a Next Thursday era of severe repetitive middle finger elevation strain!
(shuffles off muttering "I couldn't have come up with this bovine feces after two bottles of Romilar and a jug of Thunderbird.")
Comrades! The World Health Organization, in the interest of enforcing that everyone feel not-bad about themselves, has issued guidelines for not-naming diseases.
Some things to not-name diseases:
- Names which incite fear, such as the Black Death or Agonizing Groin Itch type B.
- People's names, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or Jim-Bob's Affliction.
- Animal names, such as Swine Flu or Buffalo Hoof-in-the-Nads Syndrome.
- Occupations, for example Legionnaires' Disease or Strippers' Toenails.
- Locations, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or Downtown Detroit Diarrhea.
- Hard to pronounce names, such as histogibberellic pseudoplasmosis phenylketonuria or cholera.
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director general for health security at the WHO, said: "This may seem like a trivial issue to come, but disease names really do matter to the people who are directly affected."
Let us march forward into a Next Thursday era of severe repetitive middle finger elevation strain!
(shuffles off muttering "I couldn't have come up with this bovine feces after two bottles of Romilar and a jug of Thunderbird.")