The global health body announced its change on Monday and recommended others follow suit, after what it described as a series of consultations with global experts.
“When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatising language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO,” the WHO said.
“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 WHO said both names would be used as synonyms for a year while “monkeypox” was phased out, to reduce confusion from changing names in the middle of a global outbreak.
It recommended others also adopt the new name “to minimise any ongoing negative impact of the current name and from adoption of the new name”.
The body said it consulted with a range of experts, countries and the general public.
Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recommended “mpox” be included in the latest edition of the International Classification of Diseases in coming days, with monkeypox to remain as a searchable term.
“Considerations for the recommendations included rationale, scientific appropriateness, extent of current usage, pronounceability, usability in different languages, absence of geographical or zoological references, and the ease of retrieval of historical scientific information,” the WHO said.
“Usually, the ICD updating process can take up to several years. In this case, the process was accelerated, though following the standard steps.”
In August, the WHO began consulting experts about renaming the disease, shortly after the UN agency declared monkeypox’s spread to be a global emergency.
To date, there have been more than 80,000 cases identified in dozens of countries that had not previously reported the smallpox-related disease. Until May, monkeypox, a disease that is thought to originate in animals, was not known to trigger large outbreaks beyond central and west Africa.
Outside of Africa, nearly all cases have been in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. Scientists believe monkeypox triggered outbreaks in Western countries after spreading via sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.
Vaccination efforts in rich countries, along with targeted control interventions, have mostly brought the disease under control after it peaked in the summer.
In Africa, the disease mainly affects people in contact with infected animals such as rodents and squirrels. The majority of monkeypox-related deaths have been in Africa, where there have been almost no vaccines available.
The disease was first named monkeypox in 1958 when research monkeys in Denmark were observed to have a “pox-like” disease, although they are not thought to be the disease’s animal reservoir.
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Although WHO has named numerous new diseases shortly after they emerged, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS and COVID-19, this appears to be the first time the agency has attempted to rechristen a disease decades after it was first named.
Numerous other diseases, including Japanese encephalitis, German measles, Marburg virus and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome have been named after geographic regions, which could now be considered prejudicial. WHO has not suggested changing any of those names.
– With Associated Press
