Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 29th Nov. World Health Organization on Monday announced that Monkeypox will now be known as mpox, after reports of racist and stigmatizing language surrounding the name of the disease.
The decision follows a series of consultations with global experts, WHO said in a press release issued in New York.
The agency noted that both terms will be used simultaneously for a year before the monkeypox name is phased out.
“This serves to mitigate the concerns raised by experts about confusion caused by a name change in the midst of a global outbreak,” WHO said in a statement.
Mpox is a rare viral disease that primarily occurs in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa, but outbreaks emerged in other parts of the world this year.
There are over 80,000 cases, and 55 deaths, with 110 countries affected.
The current outbreak expanded, WHO both observed and received reports of racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities, it said.
WHO stated that “In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name,”.
The monkeypox name was given in 1970, some 12 years after the virus that causes the disease was discovered in captive monkeys.
WHO first published best practices on naming diseases in 2015.
These guidelines recommend that new disease names should aim to minimize unnecessary negative impacts on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, it said.
They should avoid offending any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.
WHO assigned names to new and, very exceptionally, existing diseases, through a consultative process.
Medical and scientific experts, representatives from government authorities from 45 countries, and the general public, were invited to submit their suggestions.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the agency has recommended adoption of the mpox synonym.
Considerations included rationale, scientific appropriateness, extent of current usage, pronounceability, usability in different languages, absence of geographical or zoological references, and the ease of retrieval of historical scientific information.
WHO will adopt the term mpox in its communications, and encourages others to follow suit, it concluded.
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