- The World Health Organization announced Monday that “mpox” is now the preferred name for monkeypox.
- “Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while ‘monkeypox’ is phased out,” the organization said.
- The Biden administration said they “welcome the change” and the US will use the mpox name “from this point forward.”
- The WHO is the international body responsible for naming diseases. Leaders in the U.S. have been engaging with stakeholders on a regular basis regarding our shared concerns and have been in close communication with counterparts at the WHO expressing support of an urgent process to change the name and propose a way forward with a new name.
- The “monkeypox” name was assigned to the disease in 1970 after the discovery of the virus in monkeys in the late 1950s.
- “New disease names should be given with the aim to minimise unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups,” the WHO said.
World Health Organization (WHO) changed the name of monkeypox to mpox
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