The World Health Organization said Monday it would start using a new preferred term “mpox” as a synonym for monkeypox and urged others to follow suit after receiving complaints that the current name for the disease was racist and stigmatizing.
“Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while ‘monkeypox’ is phased out,” the global health organization said.
In August, WHO began consulting experts about renaming the disease, shortly after the UN agency declared mpox’s spread to be a global emergency.
“When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO,” the agency said.
One of the more popular proposals was “mpox” or “Mpox,” which was put forward by Montreal-based men’s health organization RÉZO, among others. Its director said at the time that the removal of monkey imagery helped people take the health emergency seriously.
WATCH | How mpox transmits between people:
The World Health Organization says monkeypox is spreading rapidly with no signs of slowing down, but so is misinformation about the virus. Health experts break down how it’s spread and where you’re unlikely to catch it.
Mpox, discovered in 1958 and named after the first animal to show symptoms, mostly spread in a group of countries in West and Central Africa until this year. Now, 110 countries have reported some 80,000 confirmed cases and 55 deaths, according to WHO data.
Scientists believe mpox triggered outbreaks in Western countries after spreading via sex at two raves in Belgium and Spain.
Vaccination efforts in wealthy 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 mpox-related deaths have been in Africa, where there have been almost no vaccines available.
The term “monkeypox” will remain a searchable term to match historic information, WHO said.
