(HealthDay News) — Monkeypox could soon get a new name. The World Health Organization announced Friday that it plans to rename the condition to eliminate any derogatory or racist connotations, a decision in alignment with current best practices for naming diseases.
“The naming of virus species is the responsibility of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), which has a process underway for the name of the monkeypox virus,” WHO said in a statement.
The UN health agency made the decision after a meeting with scientists. WHO will hold an open forum to consider new names not offensive to specific groups.
The agency has already renamed two families (clades) of the disease by removing geographic area names, including Congo Basin and West Africa, and replacing them with monikers such as Clade 1 and 2 or with Roman numerals I and II.
The intent is to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare,” WHO said.
