WHO renames monkeypox “mpox” to avoid stigma

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that it will rename monkeypox “mpox” to avoid racist or stigmatizing comments like those that have circulated on the internet this year around the global outbreak of this disease.

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The WHO will use the termmpox” in all its documents, and although it will admit that of “monkeypox” during a one-year transition period, will remove it altogether after 12 months, the Geneva-based organization said in a statement recommending that its decision be taken up by the international community.

The term “mpox” is short for “monkeypox” (“monkeypox” in English), and will be included in the official list of diseases that the WHO will update in 2023.

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The new name would therefore partly hide the reference to primates, half a century after the disease was baptized in 1970 as “monkeypox” when it was identified for the first time in animals of this type in captivity, during investigations carried out in Denmark.

This decision has been made after discussions with various advisory bodies, medical and scientific experts and representatives of 45 governments, said the WHO.

The organization recalled that the names of diseases “should try to minimize unnecessary negative impacts on trade, tourism, animal species, or avoid offending any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic group.”

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The WHOhe added, has the responsibility to assign names to new diseases and “very exceptionally” to change those already established in cases like the current one, in which several countries and people filed complaints with the organization and proposed renaming monkeypox.

The name used until now also added some confusion, since monkeys are not the main transmitters of this disease to humans, but rather small rodents.

In this year’s outbreak, more than 81,000 cases (55 of them fatal) have been confirmed in a hundred countries, the most affected being the US (29,000 positives), Brazil (9,900), Spain (7,400), France ( 4,100) and Colombia (3,800).

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.