As monkeypox exceeds 1,600 confirmed cases worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) says it is considering changing the name of the virus.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adanom Gebreyesus said the organization was “working with partners and experts from around the world to rename the monkeypox virus, its variants and the disease that causes. “
This comes after a group of 29 experts from around the world published a call to change the name of the virus on June 10, saying that the “prevailing perception” of the virus is currently not only inaccurate, but also discriminatory and stigmatizing. “
In their public report, the experts said that the monkeypox virus, MPXV, currently has two “clusters” – or organisms that come from a common ancestor and therefore have a common genetics – that are recognized by the medical community: the “West African” cluster and the Central African or Congo Basin.
But the report’s authors said the current outbreak appears to be unrelated to Africa.
“These historical names of MPXV are at odds with best practice for avoiding geographical locations in the nomenclature of diseases and disease groups,” the experts said, noting that the WHO avoids naming variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 after locations. in which they were first discovered.
“Given the increasingly rapid communication and attention to the international epidemic of human MPXV, it is important to consider an appropriate, non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing nomenclature and classification of MPXV classes,” they said.
Experts in virology suggest that the virus and its classes be classified as MPXV classes 1, 2 and 3, named in the order of detection.
And while monkeypox is sometimes caused by crossing humans with primates, the report’s authors also say it can be spread by rodents, squirrels and other people. They said they hoped the new classification would be “an opportunity to break with the name monkeypox and the historical associations associated with the name.”
For the current iteration of the virus, which is spreading around the world, the authors propose the name hMPXV, marked “h”, which scientists believe may be of human origin.
On Tuesday, Gebreyesus told reporters that the WHO would “announce the new names as soon as possible.”
In addition to changing the name, the report’s authors also called for an end to the use of photos of African patients to portray measles lesions in the media as a way to avoid further stigma.
Proponents of the LGBTQ2S + community have also expressed concern about stigma against the virus. Although anyone may be susceptible to the virus through close contact with a sick person, including but not limited to sexual activity, some worry that new groups of cases reported among men who have sex with other men may cause prejudice or scapegoat, such as the HIV-AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s.
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