“The two terms will be used concurrently for a year, before the term monkeypox is phased out,” the organization said in a statement.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization launched a public consultation to develop a new name for the disease, and received more than 200 proposals.
The United States, which was among the countries and organizations supporting the name change, welcomed the announcement.
“Reducing stigma associated with the disease is a critical step in our work to end Mbox,” said US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
And the World Health Organization stated that global experts settled on “mbox”, after considering scientific suitability and the extent of current use, in addition to ease of pronunciation, in addition to other factors.
The disease was discovered in 1958 and named after the first animal to show symptoms, and its spread was mostly concentrated in a group of countries in western and central Africa until this year.
About 100 countries where mbox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease.
The World Health Organization has a mandate to give new names to known diseases, and generally seeks to avoid linking any disease or virus to a country, region, animal or ethnic group.
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