Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) opened a global public call for new names for the monkeypox virus in an effort to overcome the stigma associated with the name “monkeypox.”
Scientists have been concerned that the name of the monkeypox virus may lead to stigmatization of monkeys, when in fact monkeypox is not strongly associated with monkeys. At the same time, monkeypox has been circulating in Africa for a long time because there are many monkey animals on the African continent, and the existing naming may also lead to discrimination against Africans.
Just last week, those fears were fulfilled when 10 innocent monkeys were attacked, poisoned and died in a city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo in less than a week. Currently, more than 1,700 monkeypox cases have been reported in Brazil.
On Tuesday (August 16), WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland: “‘Monkeypox’ was named before the current way of naming viruses was widely accepted. .”
“We really wanted to find a name that was free of discrimination and stigma – not targeting any ethnic group, region, country or animal.” The spokesperson added that WHO has opened a dedicated webpage for everyone Offers suggestions for new names for monkeypox.
The site has received dozens of proposals, most of the new names ending in “pox” (pox), the prefix is named after some characteristics of the virus. The nomination with the highest number of votes was “Mpox” (Mpox). The nominee, Samuel Miriello, head of men’s health group RÉZO, told Reuters: “If you stopped using monkey pictures when you mentioned monkeypox, people would probably take it more seriously. epidemic.”
Another nomination is suspected to be related to former US President Trump: “TRUMP-22”, but the nominee insists it is an acronym for “Toxic Rash of Unrecognized Mysterious Provenance”
Monkeypox got its name because the virus was first identified in monkeys bred for research in Denmark in 1958, but the disease exists in many animals, most commonly in rodents. The virus was first detected in humans in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, but its spread in humans since then has been largely limited to certain West and Central African countries.
But in May of this year, monkeypox cases suddenly spread across the world, causing fever, muscle aches and widespread boils. More than 31,000 monkeypox cases have been confirmed globally and 12 people have died since the start of the year, according to the World Health Organization, which has designated the outbreak a world health emergency.
Although monkeypox can be transmitted from animals to humans, WHO experts emphasized that this round of global transmission is a “human-to-human” epidemic, and the main mode of infection is close contact between people.
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