The WHO decided to change the name of the disease in order to avoid stigmatization.
The name Monkeypox came from the fact that the disease is found in a lot of animals and most often in rodents.
There has been a rise in monkeypox infections among men who have sex with men outside of Africa.
Racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was reported to the WHO when the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year.
A new synonym for monkeypox will be used by the World Health Organization following consultations with global experts. One name will be used for a year while the other is phased out.
The first case of the disease in humans was in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970 and the spread of the disease has been limited to a few West and Central African countries.
In May, cases of the disease began to spread around the world, causing a variety of symptoms.
The WHO classified it as a public health emergency of international concern on July 24th.
There have been 81,107 confirmed cases and 55 deaths reported to the World Health Organization this year.
The WHO's case dashboard shows that 97 percent of the men were men with a median age of 34 years old.
The United States is the most affected country, followed by Brazil, Spain, France, Britain, and Mexico. They make up 86 percent of the cases around the world.
There were more than 500 cases last week. 92 percent of cases were from the Americas and 6 percent from Europe.
There have been no new cases in the last two weeks.
The WHO is in charge of assigning names to diseases.
The WHO said in August that it was looking for a new name for the virus.
The World Health Organization has best practices in disease naming adopted in 2015.
Scientific appropriateness, pronounceability, and ease of use are some of the considerations.
The World Health Organization will use the term mpox in its communications in order to minimize any negative impact of the current name.
Changing the name in the middle of a global outbreak can cause confusion.
Agence France- Presse.
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