Spanish Influenza Vocabulary

A flu epidemic in Mexico has drawn plenty of attention, and it has been covered extensively by the Mexican media. Below is a vocabulary that may be useful in understanding many of the stories. Note that many of the Spanish words related to medical issues are frequently English cognates.

One interesting item is that Spanish has three words to refer to the flu. Influenza is the most formal of the three. But gripe and gripa, both feminine nouns, are also very common. Gripe is the more common of the two and is usually used in writing. Gripa is used frequently in Mexican and Colombian speech.

el brote — outbreak (in this context)
un caso (de enfermedad) — case (of disease)
el cubrebocas. la máscara facial — face mask
el dolor — ache, pain
la enfermedad — illness
la epidemia — epidemic la gripe, la gripa — flu, influenza
la infección — infection
infectar — infection
la influenza — flu, influenza
la influenza/gripe/gripa aviar/aviara — bird flu
la influenza/gripe/gripa porcina — swine flu
la medicina, el medicamento — medicine
la muerte — death
la mutación — mutation
la pandemia — flu, pendemic
el pronóstico — prognosis
propagar, la propagación — to spread (a disease), spread (of a disease)
respiratorio — respiratory
la salud — health
la salud pública — public health
el tipo A — Type A
el virus, los virus — virus, viruses

Note also that in the Mexican media, Distrito Federal (Federal District) is frequently used to refer to Mexico City.