The World Health Organization has announced, after some criticisms, that it will hold an open forum on monkeypox name renaming. They were concerned that the name could be discriminatory or stigmatizing.
WHO said that the decision was reached following a meeting with Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations. This organization helps to identify best practices in naming human disease. This is done in order to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, socio-national, professional, or ethnic group, and minimize any negative impact on trade, tourism, and animal welfare.” ”
Friday’s announcement by the U.N. Health Agency that it had renamed two families and clades of virus using Roman numerals instead of geographic areas in order to avoid stigmatization.
Clade I or Clade one will now refer the the Congo Basin-based version of the disease. Clade two or three will refer to West Africa clades.
The WHO announced that the new names for the clades would take effect immediately while work continues on a new name or description for the disease. Anyone can submit suggestions to the WHO via their website.
The decision was taken after scientists suggested in June that the name of the current model be changed urgently, calling it “discriminatory and stigmatizing”.
The new name was proposed to minimize the virus’ “negative effects” on countries, regions, economies, and people.
Scientists proposed a neutral name in order to explain the evolution of viruses.
The Center for Disease Control says that monkeypox is not known to have originated from anywhere, even though it was first discovered in 1958. The pox-like virus was able to spread in two colonies that had monkeys as research animals.
Monkeypox cases before 2022 were almost always linked to international travel to countries that had the disease or imported animals. The first case of monkeypox in 1970 was reported.
