"Monkeypox" will soon have a different name - WHO wants to rename viral disease
Created: 06/15/2022, 11:04 am
By: Yasina Hipp
The World Health Organization (WHO) renames the viral disease.
© IMAGO/PPE/Beijersbergen
The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to give monkeypox a different name to prevent discrimination or stigma.
Geneva - "Monkeypox" - the name of the viral disease sounds a bit uncomfortable. The term is currently ubiquitous due to the spread of the virus.
For Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reports 263 cases of infection from 11 federal states (as of June 15).
The World Health Organization (WHO) is also closely monitoring the spread of the virus.
In view of the current developments, the WHO has convened an emergency committee around its boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Now the WHO is also announcing that it is changing the name of the viral disease.
WHO no longer wants to name diseases after animals or regions
The WHO chief announced in Geneva that the organization wanted to change the name "monkeypox".
The WHO published the statement by Ghebreyesus on Twitter, who said: “The WHO is also working with partners and experts from around the world to change the name of the monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes.” The WHO wants a result announce as soon as possible.
According to a spokesman, the previous name could indicate an origin from Africa.
In order to prevent possible discrimination or stigmatization, the WHO is now taking the step of renaming.
WHO: The coronavirus has also been renamed
Curiously, the term "monkeypox" is actually misleading.
The virus was first detected in a monkey, but according to current knowledge it is probably transmitted to humans primarily by small rodents.
Incidentally, monkeypox is not the first viral disease to be given a new name by the WHO.
After the first appearance of the corona virus, the WHO also quickly took care to prevent the spread of the term "Wuhan virus" and the virus is called Sars-CoV-2 and the disease Covid-19.
The renaming of the virus variants, which were called “Indian” or “British” variant in the early stages, was similar, but are now only known as “Delta” or “Alpha”.