Skip Navigation Bar
National Library of Medicine Technical BulletinNational Library of Medicine Technical Bulletin

Table of Contents: 2020 JANUARY–FEBRUARY No. 432

Previous Next


New MeSH Supplementary Concept Record for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

New MeSH Supplementary Concept Record for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). NLM Tech Bull. 2020 Jan-Feb;(432):b7

2020 February 14 [posted]
2020 February 19 [Editor's note added]
2020 March 09 [updated]

On February 13, 2020, a new MeSH Supplementary Concept Record (SCR Class 3-Disease) was added to the 2020 MeSH Browser in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) announcing an official name of the disease caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus:

  • COVID-19
    2019 novel coronavirus disease (entry term)
    2019 novel coronavirus infection (entry term)
    2019-nCoV disease (entry term)
    2019-nCoV infection (entry term)
    coronavirus disease 2019 (entry term)
    coronavirus disease-19 (entry term)

The SCR first appeared in the MeSH export file on February 14, 2020. Please continue to check the MeSH Browser for the most current updates to this SCR.

Note that the SCR has two headings mapped to the MeSH descriptors Coronavirus Infections and Pneumonia, Viral.

Citations about the virus also will be indexed with the SCR (Class 4-Organism) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. For more information, see New MeSH Supplementary Concept Record for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, Wuhan, China

Here is a suggested interim PubMed search strategy to retrieve citations, including ahead-of-print citations, on the 2019 novel coronavirus and disease:

[Editor's note: On February 19, 2020, the recommended search strategy was updated.]

2019-nCoV OR 2019nCoV OR COVID-19 OR SARS-CoV-2 OR ((wuhan AND coronavirus) AND 2019/12[PDAT]:2030[PDAT])

[Editor's note: This section was updated on March 9, 2020.]

For more information on this outbreak and coronavirus infections, see these resources:

NLM Technical Bulletin National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health