Exploring medical terminology inexpediencies: Tripledemic vs. triple epidemic

Exp Ther Med. 2023 May 19;26(1):334. doi: 10.3892/etm.2023.12033. eCollection 2023 Jul.

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.

Keywords: Hippocrates; medical terminology; paediatric virology; triple epidemic; tripledemic.

Grants and funding

Funding: No funding was received.