The World Health Organization (WHO) will now refer to monkeypox as mpox following criticisms of the prior name’s offensive origins.
The WHO announced the change in a Monday press release, writing that they had seen reports of “racist and stigmatizing language online” after the outbreak of the virus expanded earlier this year.
“In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name,” the statement reads.
Mpox is now the preferred term, and it will fully replace the term monkeypox after a transition period of one year during which WHO will use the two interchangeably. The term will be added to the current International Classification of Diseases (ICD) as a synonym and will be an official part of the next iteration of the ICD, which is “the current global standard for health data, clinical documentation, and statistical aggregation,” per the press release.
Although updating the ICD usually takes several years, the process was expedited but not any less rigorous. According to the press release, the WHO consulted with several advisory bodies about the name change, including representatives from 45 different countries.
Even so, the change has been in the works for some time. In June, a group of African scientists and allies published an open letter urging a name change and calling for Western media to stop using images of Black people exclusively in news coverage 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 scientists wrote.
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The WHO agreed to change the name that same month but faced criticism when several weeks had passed and no change had occurred. In July, New York City public health commissioner Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD, sent a letter to the WHO pressing the organization on the urgency of renaming the virus for fear of perpetuating stigma. In addition to noting that the name could possibly mislead people into thinking that the virus originated from monkeys, Dr. Vasan drew a parallel to the emerging days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“Early misinformation about the virus led people to believe that it was spread to humans after people in Africa engaged in sexual activity with monkeys,” Dr. Vasan wrote. “This kind of false messaging created incalculable harm and stigma for decades to come. Continuing to use the term ‘monkeypox’ to describe the current outbreak may reignite these traumatic feelings of racism and stigma—particularly for Black people and other people of color, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ communities, and it is possible that they may avoid engaging in vital health care services because of it.”
While the change is long overdue, it’s certainly welcome at a time when LGBTQ+ people already face heightened stigma and scrutiny. Despite overall numbers of mpox diagnoses trending downward in the United States, the number of those affected remains to be disproportionately queer Black people as a result of inequitable vaccine distribution and systemic health care problems.
This article was originally published on Them.
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Source: SELF
