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الرئيسيةNewsLiving HealthyWHO To Change Monkeypox Virus Name Due to Stigma...

WHO To Change Monkeypox Virus Name Due to Stigma & Racism

Monkeypox Virus: The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that it will soon change the name of the virus which has spread across 20 countries.

While briefing the media, the director general of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that they are currently working with other experts and partners on changing the name of the monkeypox virus.

This is what Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday as per a news published on Fox News, “WHO is also working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes. We will make an announcement about the new names as soon as possible,” he clarified.

 

WHO To Change Monkeypox Virus Name

The above decision to change the name of the monkeypox virus came after a team of 30 international scientists claimed last week that the name of the monkeypox virus is ‘discriminatory and stigmatizing’. And so, there is an urgent need t change the name of the virus.

This is what the scientists had written to WHO on June 10, “The prevailing perception in the international media and scientific literature is that MPXV is endemic in people in some African countries. However, it is well established that nearly all MPXV outbreaks in Africa prior to the 2022 outbreak, have been the result of spillover from animals to humans and only rarely have there been reports of sustained human-to-human transmissions,” they wrote.

They further stated, “In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing.”

 

WHO Says Monkeypox Cases May Spike

It all started from May 2022 when the cases of Monkeypox were reported from countries where the disease was not known to be endemic. Since then monkeypox cases are being reported with travel history to countries like North America and Europe.

This is the first time that cases have taken an ugly shape and have been reported from both endemic and non-endemic countries.

Till now, most reported cases have been spotted through sexual health or other such primary health care facility. These cases don’t spread exclusively through sexual contact between men and men.

 

Source: Forbes.com

 

Also Read: Fourth Monkeypox Case Confirmed In Massachusetts

 

 

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