On Tuesday, the World Health Organization asked people for help to suggest new names monkeypox disease To ease the stigma that accompanies the current name of the rapidly 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 the monkeys that play a small role in its spread, and for the continent of Africa, on the other hand, to which these animals are often associated.
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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. And she added, “We really want to find a name that does not have a stigma,” noting that the field of counseling is currently open to everyone through World Health Organization website.
The term monkeypox 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.
But in May, the disease began to spread rapidly around the world. The disease causes fever and muscle aches.
More than 31,000 confirmed cases have been recorded in the world since the beginning of 2022, and 12 of them have died, according to the World Health Organization, which announced on July 23 the highest level of alert, a public health emergency at an international level, to strengthen the fight against the disease.
While the virus can be transmitted from animals to humans, WHO experts stress that its recent spread is caused by physical contact between humans.
And the organization announced last week that a group of experts met and agreed to adopt new names for the monkeypox virus mutants.