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The New York City Health Department is calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to immediately rename the monkeypox virus.
In a letter to WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr Ashwin Vasan wrote that while the Big Apple remains concerned about the rapidly increasing transmission and limited access to resources for testing and vaccine delivery, it there is “growing concern” about the stigmatization and “potentially devastating” impacts that reports of monkeypox can have on vulnerable communities.
“I am therefore writing to urge you to act immediately to rename the virus ‘monkeypox’, as the WHO said it would do during a press conference on June 14, over [five] weeks ago. New York joins many public health experts and community leaders who have expressed serious concern about the continued exclusive use of the term monkeypox, given the stigma it can engender and the painful and racist history in which terminology such as this one is rooted for communities of color,” he said.
Tedros and the WHO announced last week that the international outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
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“Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus,” he told reporters.
The monkeypox reports divided officials, and Tedros announced in June that the UN health agency was working with experts to change the name.
New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Ashwin Vasan speaks during a media presence at Elmhurst Hospital. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Humans are usually infected with the monkeypox virus by contact with skin lesions or body fluids of infected animals or humans, or by contact with materials contaminated with the virus.
Although most cases have been seen in gay or bisexual men, experts warn that anyone is at potential risk.
A group of scientists wrote in a forum earlier in June that the continued reference and nomenclature of the virus as African “is not only inaccurate but also discriminatory and stigmatizing.”
The virus has now spread to more than 75 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most of which have not previously reported monkeypox.
According to the WHO, monkeypox is endemic to countries in West and Central Africa.
People wait to receive the monkeypox vaccine at a mass vaccination site in Manhattan on July 26, 2022 in New York. (Liao Pan/China News Service via Getty Images)
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“‘Monkeypox’ is a misnomer because the virus did not originate in monkeys and was classified as such only because of an infection seen in research primates,” Vasan added.
Wassan said the continued use of the term “monkey pox” could reignite traumatic feelings of racism and stigma, particularly for black communities, other communities of color and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities.
Commissioner Ashwin Vasan speaks with health workers before the opening of a mass monkeypox vaccination site at the Bushwick Education Campus in Brooklyn on July 17, 2022. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)
Wassan also noted that hate crimes against Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) people have increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that additional consequences for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men could to be caused by stigma.
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“Words can save lives or put them at further risk; thus, the world cannot repeat these nomenclature mistakes again,” he said. “We are at a critical juncture in the monkeypox epidemic – before understanding and awareness of the virus is more widespread, but also at a time of increased transmission where we need to send messages about primary prevention and risk widely.” WHO must act now before it is too late.”
As of Tuesday, 1,092 people had been tested for orthopoxvirus and monkeypox, according to city figures, but there are likely many more cases that have gone undiagnosed.
Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News Digital. You can find her on Twitter at @JuliaElenaMusto.
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