Monkeypox has a new name, according to the World Health Organization. While both names are still being used during a year-long transition phase, the disease will be known as mpox moving forward.
Over the years, there have been many complaints about the name “monkeypox,” many of which say it labels patients and includes racist tropes. Due to complaints, The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has issued for the virus to be renamed, the New York Times reported.
But even the name itself is misleading. The name monkeypox implies monkeys have something to do with the virus when this isn’t the case at all. They have nearly nothing to do with the virus or even the transmission of it.
Originally, the name for the disease came about from lab monkeys in Denmark. This happened to be the same lab where mpox was discovered by scientists. This was how the disease was first named.
However, since then there have been new protocols when it comes to the naming of diseases and viruses. W.H.O. has even issued recommendations for naming diseases. One of the recommendations is to “reduce unnecessary negative impact on travel, tourism or animal welfare,” the New York Times reported.
W.H.O. also suggests avoiding “causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.”
But the renaming of monkeypox wasn’t a quick process. In fact, it took a month for monkeypox to be renamed to mpox. A month of reviews and input from worldwide experts all went into the naming of mpox.
“W.H.O. will adopt the term mpox in its communications, and encourage others to follow these recommendations, to minimize any ongoing negative impact of the current name and from adoption of the new name,” W.H.O. said in a statement.
With the renaming of monkeypox, there is less stigmatization around the virus. The term “monkeypox” has even been said to reinforce African stereotypes of sexually transmitted pathogens, and it can also be racist by comparing Africans to primates.
“Names matter, and so does scientific accuracy, especially for pathogens and epidemics that we are trying to control,” Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician at Stellenbosch University, said during a W.H.O. campaign, according to the New York Times.
However, it is important to note that the term “monkeypox,” while no longer being used, will still be searchable in the International Classification of Diseases for historical purposes. Although simply renaming a virus won’t completely erase its original term, it is a step in the right direction at correctly naming diseases.
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Written for Passport Health by Elle Johnson. Elle is a freelance journalist and social media content creator in Florida. Not only does she enjoy working as a freelancer, but in her free time she enjoys working on fictional stories.
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