Decision comes after scientists voice concern that the name is ‘discriminatory and stigmatising’

Durrant Pate/Contributor

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it will rename the monkeypox virus which has infected more than 1,600 people in 39 countries so far this year.

The WHO, which made the announcement during a press conference yesterday, comes after a group of 30 international scientists voiced concerns that the name could be stigmatising. In making the announcement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organisation was working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes.

The WHO boss told the news conference, “we will make an announcement about the new names as soon as possible”.

The WHO will convene an emergency meeting next week to determine whether the spread of monkeypox should be considered a public health emergency worldwide.

The more than 30 international scientists urged the health community to change the name of the virus last week.

International scientists penned their concerns

They wrote on June 10 that, “the prevailing perception in the international media and scientific literature is that MPXV is endemic in people in some African countries. However, it is well established that nearly all MPXV outbreaks in Africa prior to the 2022 outbreak, have been the result of spillover from animals to humans and only rarely have there been reports of sustained human-to-human transmissions”.

The scientists argued that, given in the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatising.

Fox News points out that the WHO lists two known clades of monkeypox on its website, “one identified in West Africa (WA) and one in the Congo Basin (CB) region”.

The group of scientists wrote that using this nomenclature is “counter to the best practice of avoiding geographic locations in the nomenclature of diseases and disease groups”.

According to the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), scientists first found monkeypox during two outbreaks of a pox-like disease in monkeys at a research facility in Denmark in 1958.

The first human case was found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.

It is noteworthy that the biggest current outbreak is in the United Kingdom, where health officials have detected 470 cases.

Human-to-human transmission of the virus occurs primarily through direct contact with infected people or surfaces that are contaminated. The CDC has reported 65 monkeypox cases in the US, including 15 in California and 11 in New York.

Monkeypox has similar symptoms to smallpox but is milder. Infected individuals typically develop flu-like symptoms followed by a rash that turns into lesions.

Tedros acknowledged that “the outbreak of monkeypox is unusual and concerning. For that reason, I have decided to convene the emergency committee under the international health regulations next week to assess whether this outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern”.

READ: Monkeypox cases around the world