The World Health Organization on Tuesday asked people for help to suggest new names for monkeypox to ease the stigma attached to the current name for the fast-spreading disease.
For weeks, the United Nations expressed its concern about the name of the disease that appeared on the world stage in May.
Experts warn that the current name may constitute a stigma, on the one hand, for monkeys, which play a small role in its spread, and for the continent of Africa, on the other hand, to which these animals are often associated.
In Brazil, for example, there have been recent cases of people attacking monkeys, due to fear of disease.
“Monkeypox was given its name before the current proper naming practice,” WHO spokeswoman Fadila Shuaib told reporters in Geneva.
“We really want to find a name that doesn’t have a stigma,” she added, noting that consultations are currently open to everyone via the World Health Organization’s website https://icd.who.int/dev11.
The term chickenpox was used when this virus was detected in 1958 in monkeys in a laboratory in Denmark, but it was also discovered in other types of animals, especially rodents.
The first human infection was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
#World #Health #asks #public #suggest #alternative #names #monkeypox