To avoid stigma, WHO seeks public's help to rename monkeypox virus
Soon, the virus known as monkeypox will be going by a different name.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking the public’s assistance to rename the virus.
“WHO is holding an open consultation for a new disease name for monkeypox,” said the organization in a statement.
The disease got its name when it was first discovered in 1958. This was before the organization adopted best practices in naming diseases and viruses. Back then, variants were known by the name of the region where the disease was known to circulate.
However, monkeypox will now be renamed to “avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare.”
Assigning new names to existing diseases is the responsibility of WHO under the Int’ll Classification of Diseases. WHO is holding an open consultation for a new disease name for #monkeypox. Anyone wishing to propose new names can do so.
šhttps://t.co/77jEsQQeCSā World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 13, 2022
Recently, the organization announced that a group of global experts have agreed on new names for the monkeypox virus variants. The variants will now be called clade I, clade IIa, and clade IIB, with the latter referring to the group of variants that have been circulating this year.
š WHO names #monkeypox variants as Clades I, IIa & IIb. Experts in pox virology, evolutionary biology & representatives of research institutes from across the globe reviewed the phylogeny & nomenclature of known & new monkeypox virus variants or cladeshttps://t.co/2KVxkVqxCr pic.twitter.com/Y1gqVkRhKX
ā World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 13, 2022
Since May, the virus has been reported in countries where the disease is not endemic. Often, confirmed cases were known to have a history of travel to places in Europe and North Africa.
On July 23, monkeypox was declared a public health emergency. As of August 12, there are currently 1,059 confirmed cases across Canada. New Brunswick also just announced its first confirmed case on August 12.
Public Health Agency of Canada
According to WHO, most reported cases have been identified “through sexual health or other health services in primary or secondary health-care facilities and have involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada stated that it’s working with WHO to monitor the situation.
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