Awful sounding Vs. silly sounding! Disease names & their impact!

[FernRhizome]

As the media buzzes with XMRV articles this week I was struck by the irony of the following sentence in one of the articles:

"The virus, dubbed XMRV for the awful-sounding xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus . . ."
from Cancer News Today

What a fast turnabout XMRV is making in the public understanding of CFS from the "silly sounding" name of "chronic fatigue syndrome" to something "awful-sounding."

 

[Eric Johnson from I&I]

It's the perfect name to evoke a grave regard. An ominous technical Greek word, then "leukemia," and finally not one but two "virus"es.

 

[Sunday]

I agree about the name appropriateness, thanks for the spellout.

Although I can't help a frivolous response: what is a "virus-related virus"??? Is that like a chicken-related chicken? Or rice-related rice?

 

[Dr. Yes]

More like saying "a friend of a friend". (or of Friend) :Retro wink:


wow, I actually made a retrovirology pun

 

[FernRhizome]

You all got me laughing.....yes virus-related virus sounds so doubly viral intense! Scary for sure! Great retrovirology pun dr. yes....