As monkeypox surpasses 1,600 confirmed cases worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) says it is considering a name change for the virus.
During a on Tuesday, the WHO鈥檚 director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization is 鈥渨orking with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes.鈥�
This comes after a group of 29 experts from around the world published a call to change the name of the virus on June 10, saying the 鈥減revailing perception鈥� of the virus right now is 鈥渘ot only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing.鈥�
In their , the experts said the virus causing monkeypox, MPXV, currently has two 鈥渃lades鈥� 鈥� or organisms that come from a common ancestor and therefore have common genetics 鈥� that are recognized by the medical community: the 鈥淲est African鈥� clade and the 鈥淐entral African鈥� or 鈥淐ongo Basin鈥� clade.
But the report鈥檚 authors said the current outbreak appears not to be linked to Africa at all.
鈥淭hese historic MPXV clade names are counter to the best practice of avoiding geographic locations in the nomenclature of diseases and disease groups,鈥� the experts said, noting that the WHO avoided naming variants of the virus causing COVID-19 after the places in which they were first found.
鈥淕iven the increasingly rapid communication of, and attention to, the international human MPXV outbreak, it is important to consider an appropriate, non-discriminatory, and non-stigmatizing nomenclature and classification of MPXV clades,鈥� they said.
The virology experts suggest that the virus and its clades be classified as MPXV clades 1, 2 and 3, named in order of detection.
And while monkeypox is occasionally caused by human crossover with primates, the report鈥檚 authors also said it can be spread by rodents, squirrels and other humans. They said they hope a new classification would be 鈥渁n opportunity for a break with the name monkeypox and the historical associations attached to that name.鈥�
For the current iteration of the virus spreading around the globe, the authors suggest the name hMPXV, with the 鈥渉鈥� marking that scientists believe the origins could possibly be human.
On Tuesday, Ghebreyesus told reporters that the WHO would 鈥渕ake announcements about the new names as soon as possible.鈥�
Besides a name change, the report鈥檚 authors also issued a call to stop the use of photos of African patients to depict the pox lesions in the media as a way to avoid further stigmatization.
Advocates for the LGBTQ2S+ community have also expressed concern about stigmatization concerning the virus. While anyone could be susceptible to catching the virus through close contact with a sick person, including but not limited to sexual activity, some worry that new clusters of cases reported among men who have sex with other men could trigger prejudices or scapegoating similar to the HIV-AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.
