The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently declared Coronavirus a pandemic: a new disease for which people don’t have immunity and which has spread geographically around the world beyond expectations. During a global pandemic, whether the current Coronavirus example or any other, the importance of clear communication and collaboration across languages cannot be understated, both around the world and within individual communities.

In the 2019 Global Health Security Index report, it was found that nations that have more than one primary language or localised dialects are most susceptible to a major crisis from a global pandemic. In Italy, the local dialects of the north and south are almost non mutually understandable.

While there has been no direct link proven between the country’s linguistic diversity and the rampant spread of Coronavirus, full understanding of and compliance with the countrywide civil protection order for lockdown can work. Just two weeks after the first 10 towns in northern Italy were put under lockdown, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio reported no new infections in these ‘red zones’ where the Italian outbreak began.

With the need for clear communication of medical information across every language in the world during the Coronavirus pandemic, medical translation services should be on the frontline of a coordinated global response.

Working together towards finding a cure

Medical research teams are working simultaneously across the world to find ways to stamp out the virus. There are more than 20 pharmaceutical companies working towards a vaccine or treatment for Coronavirus, based in countries including America, China, Germany, Italy, the UK, France. It is imperative that researchers can learn from the results of other experiments, as this may help expediate or influence the outcome of their own work. So, medical translation services will have a huge role to play in the race to find a vaccine against coronavirus.

Helping to slow the local and global spread of Coronavirus

With the recent trend of nations across the globe such as America putting travel bans in place and Argentina closing its borders to all arrivals, this could lead to an increase in tourists stranded in countries where they don’t speak the language all across the world. Clear communication is vital in medical treatment, and the smallest error could have potentially life-altering consequences for a patient. It is imperative that health care professionals are able to provide clear and accurate instructions in order to prevent unwitting spreading of the virus.

Our medical document translators assist hospitals in the translation of letters, leaflets, treatment plans, guides and more, all of which will be crucial for sharing information while minimising human contact in line with quarantine and social distancing. We also offer quick and accurate written translations of medical records. In order to safely treat coronavirus patients from other countries, doctors must have full access to the content in their medical histories, such as underlying conditions or allergies to certain medications.

We work with a network of skilled medical translators that have a high level of medical knowledge and experience in a variety of medical fields, from general practitioners to oncologists. Having medical documents translated by medical experts means that they will be able to ensure no relevant information is missed out or misinterpreted, more important than ever in the treatment of the vulnerable demographics most susceptible to Coronavirus. We uphold the utmost confidentiality when handling patient information. For more information about our medical translation services, contact Talking Heads today.