A glossary of COVID-19 public health terms, produced by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) in partnership with National Resource Center for Refugee Immigrants Migrants (NRC-RIM), is designed to strengthen cross-cultural communication between MDH and refugee, immigrant, and migrant communities. It is a resource guide for public health agencies, translation and interpreter stakeholders, and partners working with diverse communities.
This glossary contains common public health terms and phrases in English and their equivalent meanings translated into Hmong, Spanish, and Somali. Each term/phrase is used in a sentence in each language to aid understanding. Most English definitions are from and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Objectives
It is the goal of this glossary to reduce linguistic barriers and improve consistency of communication with communities that speak Spanish, Hmong, and Somali, Minnesota’s three most commonly spoken non-English languages. Using standardized, plain language to communicate public health terms and phrases will ideally convey the meaning and intent in a way that unifies cultural expressions.
Acknowledgement
The glossary is a result of a robust consultative process among various internal MDH bilingual teams and external partners who developed a translation process, revised the translation through a method of consensus, and endorsed the final glossary.
For their expertise and collaboration, we want to thank the MDH Cultural Communications Team and partners, including local public health and translation agencies.
If you have any questions, would like the Excel version, or would like to offer an alternate translation for a term to be considered, please email health.idee@state.mn.us.