VANK has launched a global campaign to challenge the practice of naming diseases after specific countries, regions or ethnic groups, which can fuel social stigma and discrimination.
VANK said Sept. 23, 2026, that it had launched “Correct the Name” (correctname.one), a campaign website aimed at addressing geographic and social biases embedded in disease names.
The website is available in three languages: Korean, English and French.
The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the prejudice and discrimination that can arise when disease names are associated with particular regions or groups and highlight the need for neutral and scientifically grounded disease names.
The website also features a “Thought Experiment Simulator,” in which users can combine terms such as “American,” “Korean,” “Brazilian,” “European” and “Arab” to generate hypothetical disease names such as “American Fever,” “European Syndrome” and “Arab Virus.”
The simulator is designed to let users experience how disease names that associate a particular group with illness can create stigma.
VANK has also created a “Naming in Practice” archive featuring the World Health Organization’s 2015 guidance on naming infectious diseases and examples of disease-name changes.
Examples include “COVID-19” instead of “Wuhan pneumonia,” “1918 influenza epidemic” instead of “Spanish flu,” and “mpox” instead of “monkeypox.”
The archive also highlights the 2021 use of Greek-letter names such as Alpha and Beta for COVID-19 variants instead of geographic labels such as “UK variant” and “South African variant.”
VANK has specifically singled out “African swine fever” (ASF), the name officially used by international organizations and other institutions, as an example that should be reconsidered. It has proposed “Porcine Hemorrhagic Fever” (PHF) as an alternative name that omits the name of the continent and focuses instead on the disease’s pathological features.
VANK has also launched a petition calling for the introduction of a UN resolution recommending that the international community use disease names that reduce geographic stigma. Its initial target is 1,000 signatures, and VANK plans to submit the results to international organizations.
In addition, VANK is distributing multilingual PDF resources, including a “Campaign Media Style Guide” to help educators and media outlets around the world use nondiscriminatory language and “Classroom Conversation Worksheets” for use in elementary, middle and high school classrooms.
Park Gi-tae, head of VANK, said, “Viruses have neither borders nor nationalities. I hope people around the world will join us in erasing outdated prejudice and stigma associated with disease names and establishing a language of respect.”