Why We Need to Change How We Talk About Infectious Disease

This article builds a case for raising occupational consciousness by critically questioning ahistorical and apolitical uses of battle language, especially when referring to infectious diseases.Words such as invasion, colonization, and resistance are particularly ethically troubling, and this article considers why the social practices our language brings about matter in health care.Dynamic relationships among humans and microbes, as well as metaphor, are considered here in historical context and through the lens of Derrida's portmanteau hostipitality, which invites reconsideration of an infectious disease notion of host and how conceptions of hospitality have been institutionalized and commodified.This article argues that language used in infectious disease care settings should be informed by coexistence as a guiding value of clinical and ethical relevance.I had been talking to a patient.We had found drug-resistant bacteria in her lungs, and she was understandably worried.I tried to reassure her that the bacteria were not causing any problems and didn't need any treatment, they just happened to be there.The language I used to do this was "it's just a colonizer."This particular patient was Native American.