Difference between болезнь and заболевание, ОРВИ and ОРЗ?

Asked by John on December 20, 2018

Question

What, if anything, is the difference between болезнь and заболевание; between ОРВИ and ОРЗ? Also, would you pronounce ОРВИ as a single word (like вуз for example) - and if so, where would the stress be? Or do you pronounce it о-эр-ви-и maybe? Would you always write ОРВИ and ОРЗ in capital letters or is it common to write them in lower case? Thank you!

Answer

Hi John,

Болезнь has a general meaning, заболевание is a term, used by doctors. They both mean the same thing.

ОРЗ (острое респираторное заболевание) is pronounced as о-эр-зэ and it is a more general term than ОРВИ (острое инфекционное вирусное заболевание), pronounced as орви with the last и stressed. In the second case, it is clear that the illness was caused by a virus.

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