The World Health Organization (WHO) has renamed the monkeypox virus after claiming the original name raised racism concerns.
QUICK FACTS:
- The WHO has officially renamed monkeypox to “mpox” over concerns that the original title could be construed with “racism and stigmatizing language.”
- “Following a series of consultations with global experts, WHO will begin using a new preferred term ‘mpox’ as a synonym for monkeypox. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while ‘monkeypox’ is phased out,” the WHO said.
- Cases of the virus have recently been reported in 29 countries including the United States, with the majority of those affected homosexual or bisexual men.
THE WHO ON THE TERM “MONKEYPOX” CONTAINING RACIST LANGUAGE:
“When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities, was observed and reported to WHO,” the organization said.
BACKGROUND:
- The World Health Organization claimed earlier this month that the monkeypox outbreak still represented a global health emergency of the highest alert level, despite only 28,442 monkeypox cases in the United States and 77,174 worldwide.
- “The Committee held the consensus view that the event continues to meet the IHR criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and highlights the primary reasons for ongoing concern,” the WHO said in a statement.
- “These include ongoing transmission in some regions, continuing preparedness and response inequity within and between WHO Member States, an emerging potential for greater health impact in vulnerable populations, continuing risk of stigma and discrimination, weak health systems in some developing countries leading to under-reporting, ongoing lack of equitable access to diagnostics, antiviral and vaccines, and research gaps needing to be addressed,” the organization continued.
- The last monkeypox outbreak occurred back in 2003, when 47 people in the U.S. were infected with the virus traced to a shipment of animals from Ghana.
