The World Health Organization said it was working with experts to change the name of the monkeypox virus that has spread to more than 20 countries in recent weeks.
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A group of 30 scientists from Africa and around the world wrote in a paper last week that there was an urgent need to change the name of the virus.
The WHO recommends against using geographic regions or animal names.
The process of naming diseases should be done with the aim to minimize the negative impact and avoid offending any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups, said the spokesman.
There are two different strains of monkeypox listed on the WHO website. Scientists argued in their paper that using the word "African" is not only inaccurate, but also discrimination. The current outbreak is being linked to Africa by using those names. One of the authors of the paper said that media outlets have used photos of African patients to report on an outbreak spreading in the global north. The group wanted the WHO to change the strains of the virus. The WHO made a decision a year ago to assign Greek alphabet names to the Covid-19 variant to reduce discrimination.
Monkeypox got its name because it was the first disease to be found in monkeys. In 1970 the first human case of monkeypox was found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the Centers for Disease Control, most of the infections are in the Democratic Republic of the Sudan. According to the CDC, there have been cases outside of Africa with links to travel or imported animals in the US, Israel, Singapore and the UK. The Western outbreak of monkeypox began in the UK, Portugal and Spain in May and has since spread to a number of countries, including the US, Australia, Canada, France and Germany.
The animal has a role to play in the viruses. According to the CDC, rodents may transmit diseases to humans.
There are more than 1000. More than 50 countries where the disease is not endemic have reported confirmed cases of monkeypox to the World Health Organization.
Every case of monkeypox should be treated the same way as the cases in Europe and North America. Scientists argued in the paper that the epidemic should not be limited to the Northern Hemisphere.
Scientists are pushing to change the name of the monkeypoxviruses.
The monkeypox virus will be renamed to reduce stigma.
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