Monkeypox: WHO pushes renaming of disease and virus - first new names are fixed

Created: 08/19/2022, 22:06

By: Marcus Giebel

Monkeypox is currently spreading around the world and is on everyone's lips.

The WHO is working on a renaming and is publishing the first decisions.

Munich - The World Health Organization (WHO) brings order to the world of monkeypox.

The virus, which has been strikingly widespread on all continents for the first time in recent months, and the disease are given new names, as the organization announced on its website.

It starts with the clades – in biology, this is understood as a systematic unit that contains the last ancestor and all its descendants.

In the case of monkeypox, the Congo Basin or Central Africa clade will become clade I (or Clade I in English), and the West Africa clade will become clade II (Clade II).

The latter also consists of two subclasses – more on that later.

WHO wants to rename monkeypox: No more room for insults from certain groups

This renaming is based on a mutual decision by a group of global experts convened by the WHO.

This was done in light of the fact that "newly identified viruses, related diseases and virus variants should be given names with the aim of avoiding offenses against cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethical groups and negative impacts on trade, the Minimize travel, tourism or animal welfare”.

In other words, there should be no place for stigmatization.

Recently there have even been reports of monkey hunts.

The WHO points out that the naming took place after monkeypox was discovered in 1958.

At that time there were no such specifications, either when naming the virus or when naming the disease.

At that time, frequently occurring variants were named after the regions in which they were primarily rampant.

Monkeypox should no longer be called monkeypox: the WHO has already arranged for the renaming of the clades.

© IMAGO / IP3press

WHO is looking for a new name for monkeypox: suggestions via the homepage are possible

While the WHO is responsible for the name of the respective disease, this task is the responsibility of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) for new virus types, both of which are working on a renaming.

The WHO also accepts suggestions for the new name of monkeypox, which was first noticed in laboratory monkeys, via its website.

With regard to the clades or variants, there are always debates among scientists before the official name is set.

To speed up this process, the WHO convened a meeting between virologists and health experts on August 8, at which the group agreed on the terms mentioned at the beginning.

Known and new variants of monkeypox were examined by smallpox and evolutionary biologists and by representatives of research institutes around the world.

And now it is clear: The clades are distinguished by Roman numerals, for subtypes such as clade II an alphanumeric lower-case letter follows.

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New names for monkeypox clades: The variant that is widespread in Germany is now called clade IIb

According to the current state of research, a distinction is made between clade I, clade IIa and clade IIb.

The latter is the variant that is spreading globally and causing many people to riot.

Most recently, it had even been detected in a dog.

The Robert Koch Institute registered 3266 cases in Germany by August 19, 2022.

When the time came for further designations, the experts would meet again and consult.

Finally, the WHO recommends that the new names should be used immediately, even if the renaming of the disease and the virus is still in progress.