“Mpox”: why has the WHO just renamed monkeypox?

The World Health Organization has officially changed the name of monkeypox (monkeypok in English), which will now be called Mpox in all languages. The two appellations will coexist for a year before the term monkeypox be abandoned, even if it can always be sought in the international classification of diseases, specifies the WHO.

“The issue of using the new name in different languages ​​was discussed at length. The preferred term Mpox may be used in other languages,” she said in a statement. And if this name again poses a problem, the Organization ensures thatit will again launch consultations with relevant government authorities and relevant scientific societies.

For information, the name monkeypox comes from the fact that the virus was identified for the first time in monkeys intended for research in Denmark, in 1958. first cases of known contamination in humans have been reported in 1970, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And until then, the spread in humans was limited to some West African countries.

But in the spring of 2022, from the first epidemic outbreaks on a global scale, “racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in certain communities have been observed and reported to the WHO”. This is what motivated many countries and organizations to call for a name change, she recalls.

The choice of a transition from Monkeypox to Mpox “serves to alleviate concerns raised by experts about the confusion caused by a name change in the midst of a global outbreak”, further specifies the World Health Organization. To date, in 2022, some 81,000 cases and 55 deaths have been reported to WHO, in 110 countries.