Exploring medical terminology inexpediencies: Tripledemic vs. triple epidemic

Mammas,Ioannis N.; Drysdale,Simon B.; Theodoridou,Maria; Spandidos,Demetrios A.

doi:10.3892/etm.2023.12033

Exploring medical terminology inexpediencies: Tripledemic vs. triple epidemic

Authors:
- Ioannis N. Mammas
- Simon B. Drysdale
- Maria Theodoridou
- Demetrios A. Spandidos
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Affiliations: Department of Clinical Virology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece, Centre for Neonatal and Paediatric Infection, St. George's, University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK, First Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Published online on: May 19, 2023 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2023.12033
Article Number: 334
Copyright: © Mammas et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Accurate and consistent medical terminology has a fundamental value in medicine. It enables medical students to understand the meaning of each term, medical physicians to communicate with each other, and it also enables science to adopt a logical language of high‑level understanding and scientific regularity. Medical terminology inexpediencies caused by the adoption of etymologically illogical or linguistically false terms lead to misunderstanding and confusion among clinicians. The medical terms epidemic and pandemic are as old as Hippocrates and Sophocles, respectively. The present article evaluates the new medical terms tripledemic and triple epidemic, which were introduced during the recent COVID‑19 pandemic.

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