To discourage harmful misconceptions associated with the current name, World Health Organization is requesting the public to help rename the monkeypox virus.
“WHO is holding an open consultation for a new disease name for monkeypox. Anyone wishing to propose new names can do so,” the organization said in a statement.
📍This group of global experts – convened by WHO – agreed on new names for #monkeypox virus variants, as part of ongoing efforts to align the names of the monkeypox disease, virus, and variants—or clades—with current best practices. https://t.co/G375WraUz0
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) August 13, 2022
WHO said the decision was taken after meeting with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which helps identify best practices for naming new human diseases to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare.”
Critics say the term ‘Monkeypox’ reinforces racial stereotypes about Black people, Africans, and LGBTQ people and wrongly implies that monkeys are the primary source of the virus. Scientists warn it is discriminatory and stigmatizing.
The city of New York had asked the World Health Organization (WHO) on last week on Tuesday to rename the monkeypox virus to avoid stigmatizing patients who might then avoid seeking care.
“We have a growing concern for the potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects that the messaging around the ‘monkeypox’ virus can have on… already vulnerable communities,” New York City public health commissioner Ashwin Vasan said in a letter to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus dated Tuesday.
Vasan referred to the “painful and racist history within which terminology like (monkeypox) is rooted for communities of color.”
“Continuing to use the term ‘monkeypox’ to describe the current outbreak may reignite these traumatic feelings of racism and stigma — particularly for Black people and other people of color, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ communities, and it is possible that they may avoid engaging in vital health care services because of it,” Vasan said.
