A name too stigmatizing and misleading. Monkeypox, or “monkeypox” in English, will now be called “mpox” even in other languages, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Monday.
The two names will co-exist for a one-year period before the term “monkey pox” is dropped, although it can still be looked up in the international classification of diseases, the health authority said.
“This serves to alleviate concerns raised by experts about confusion caused by a name change in the midst of a global outbreak,” the WHO explained.
“The question of the use of the new name in different languages has been discussed at length. The preferred term mpox may be used in other languages,” the WHO said.
If this name would raise a problem in a language, WHO would initiate consultations with the competent government authorities and the scientific societies involved, before deciding.
A virus found in rodents
When the outbreak of monkeypox cases emerged in spring 2022, “racist and stigmatizing language was observed and reported to WHO online, in other settings, and in some communities.”
Thus, a certain number of countries, people or organizations have requested a name change, recalls the organization.
This is the case of the city of New York, which at the end of July was already asking to change its name. The city’s health commissioner had judged that this “terminology” was “rooted in a history that is racist and painful for communities of color.”
Monkeypox gets its name from the fact that the virus was originally identified in monkeys for research in Denmark in 1958, but the disease is more commonly found in rodents. It was first reported in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Spread in humans was until spring limited to certain West African countries where it is endemic.
But in May, cases of monkeypox, which causes fever, muscle aches and skin lesions, began to appear rapidly around the world, mainly among men who have sex with men.
This year, some 81,107 cases and 55 deaths have been reported to WHO in 110 countries. In France (more than 4,000 confirmed cases), the epidemic has been declining for a few months but has not disappeared. In its November 15 update, Santé Publique France underlines that “the weekly number of confirmed cases has fallen below the threshold of 5 cases”.
Source: BFM TV
