The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the renaming of Monkeypox.
It comes after a group of scientists said there was an “urgent need for a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing name” for the virus, which has mysteriously spread outside of Africa in recent weeks.
A scientific article published last week, signed by 29 experts, used the term “hMPXV” for the virus and called for a “quick decision and the adoption of a new name.”
They said the continued reference to the virus “being African is not only inaccurate but also discriminatory and stigmatizing.”
The WHO now calls two types of monkeypox the “West African clade and the Congo (Central African) basin clade”.
The scientists wrote: “There is a growing narrative in the media and among many scientists who are trying to link the current global outbreak with Africa or West Africa, or Nigeria.
“In addition, the use of geotags for MPXV strains specifically refers to the 2022 outbreak as belonging to the ‘West African’ or ‘West African’ clade, strain or genotype.”
The scientists added that names that are “neutral, non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing will be more appropriate for the global healthcare community.”
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that the organization was “working with partners and experts around the world to change the name of the monkeypox virus, its clades and disease it causes “.
“We will be announcing the new names as soon as possible,” he added.
Dr Neil Stone, a specialist in infectious diseases at University College London hospitals, tweeted that he was “delighted to hear” that the WHO was “working to change the deeply unpopular name of the virus”.
The virus was called monkeypox because it was first identified in two groups of laboratory monkeys in 1958.
It has since been identified in some wild monkeys in parts of Africa, but rodents are believed to be the main source of infection for human outbreaks in endemic regions.
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1:39 It’s like catching monkeypox
On Tuesday, the WHO said it was convening an emergency committee to determine whether the spread of the smallpox outbreak should be considered a global health emergency.
Dr. Ghebreyesus said he had convened the meeting on June 23 because the virus has shown recent “unusual” behavior as it spreads to countries far beyond parts of Africa, where it is endemic.
“We do not want to wait until the situation is out of control,” said Ibrahima Socé Fall, WHO’s director of emergency for Africa.
Declaring smallpox smallpox an international health emergency would give it the same designation as the COVID-19 pandemic and would mean that the WHO considers the normally rare disease to be a continuing threat to countries around the world.
The WHO said there were 1,600 confirmed cases and 1,500 suspected smallpox cases this year in 39 countries, with 72 dead.
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1:00 WHO “concern” over smallpox
However, none of the deaths were recorded in the newly affected countries, which include the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United States.
A total of 470 cases of smallpox in the UK have been confirmed, the vast majority in gay or bisexual men.
British scientists said last week that they could not know if the spread of the disease in the UK had reached its maximum.
The WHO has now issued new guidelines on smallpox vaccination, saying it does not recommend mass vaccination.
He said disease control is mainly based on measures such as surveillance, case follow-up and isolation of patients.
Read more: The real reason COVID-19 got its name
Smallpox is caused by flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, and spreads through close contact.
It is thought to be fatal in about 3-6% of cases, according to the WHO, although no deaths have yet been reported in the outbreak outside Africa.
Most of the deaths this year have occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Last month, a senior WHO adviser said the outbreak in Europe and beyond was likely to spread through sex in two recent radishes in Spain and Belgium.
Scientists warn that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, is likely to get smallpox from the monkey if they are in close physical contact with an infected person or their clothing or sheets.
The WHO has been working to create a mechanism by which some smallpox-related vaccines, a related disease, can be made available to affected countries as research continues on their effectiveness against the new outbreak.