Why Severe acute respiratory syndrome?

[Piak]

Dear Sirs,

I just don't understand it, in term of grammatical writing, why they use "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome"? Can I use "Severely-Acute Respiratory Syndrome instead. Which one is more correct, in term of "grammatical point (Normal Pattern: Adverb+Adjective+Noun:-Severely-Acute Respiratory Syndrome, While in the phrase: SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME:-ADJECTIVE+ADJECTIVE+ADJECTIVE+NOUN, 3 Adjectives in the phrase, So, How about that?, even in BBC and VOA news, you can see this form, Do you have any explaination, please?). I raised this question for better understanding on how to use the adjective or the adverb, please.
And also, in the short form; SARS, what is the correct pronunciation of word?

Best regards,
Piak

[RonBee]

Dear Sirs,

I just don't understand it, in term of grammatical writing, why they use "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome"? Can I use "Severely-Acute Respiratory Syndrome instead. Which one is more correct, in term of "grammatical point (Normal Pattern: Adverb+Adjective+Noun:-Severely-Acute Respiratory Syndrome, While in the phrase: SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME:-ADJECTIVE+ADJECTIVE+ADJECTIVE+NOUN, 3 Adjectives in the phrase, So, How about that?, even in BBC and VOA news, you can see this form, Do you have any explaination, please?). I raised this question for better understanding on how to use the adjective or the adverb, please.

My best "guess" is that severe does not modify acute, but it modifies respiratory syndrome.

And also, in the short form; SARS, what is the correct pronunciation of word?

And also, in the short form (SARS), what is the correct pronunciation of the word?

The way I have heard it pronounced is sarz

8)

Best regards,

[John D]

Hi, :D . The name given to this particular disease by the World Health Organisation is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and would be considered a Name or ( I am open to correction here) Collective Noun. Which cannot be changed just because it does not correspond to certain language rules.

[Tdol]

It is 'severe' not 'severely' because it is an adjective modifying respiratory syndrome, not an adverb modifying the degree of 'acute'.

[John D]

Hi again Piak, :) .

The word severe is not needed in the name of the disease.

Acute Respiratory Syndrome would have served the same purpose.
For a medical condition to be acute is the worst it can get, therefore the word severe is not required for medical or grammatical reasons.

Acute Respiratory Syndrome would have been shortened or capitalised to become ARS.

This would not have been a good thing.

They added the word severe so that it could be shortened to SARS.

[Tdol]

Apparently, they mean different things; I got this from MikeNewYork:

In medical terms, severe and acute have different meanings. One can have an acute disease (sudden onset, short course) that is severe (serious, life-threatening) or not severe. One can have a chronic disease (long onset, long course) that is severe or not severe.

acute, severe: SARS, cholera, ruptured appendix, myocardial infarction
acute, not severe: routine diarrhea, influenza, Bell's palsy,
chronic, severe: cancer, congestive heart failure, lupus
chronic, not severe: spastic colon/colitis, hay fever, sinusitis,

[Piak]

Thank you again for your additional reply made to this post.

Best regards,
Piak

[Tdol]

You're welcome