WHO to Rename Monkeypox to Avoid Discrimination and Stigmatization

In a statement Friday, the U.N. health agency said it has also renamed two families, or clades, of the virus, using Roman numerals instead of geographic areas, to avoid stigmatization.

The version of the disease formerly known as the Congo Basin will now be known as Clade one or I and the West Africa clade will be known as Clade two or II.

WHO said that the new names for the clades will take effect immediately while a new name for the disease and virus will be worked on. The WHO said that anyone who wishes to submit a name suggestion can do so on their website.

The decision comes after a group of scientists in June proposed an “urgent” name change, calling the current name “discriminatory and stigmatizing.”

The new name, they proposed, would minimize the “negative impacts on nations, geographic regions, economies and people and that considers the evolution and spread of the virus.”

The scientists proposed a neutral name that accounts for the evolution of the virus.

“In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing. The most obvious manifestation of this is the use of photos of African patients to depict the pox lesions in mainstream media in the global north” they said in a joint statement.

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