WHO wants to change name of monkeypox – science
Diseases
Geneva (dpa). The World Health Organization (WHO) will give monkeypox a new name.
There have long been efforts to stop naming diseases after animals or regions to prevent any possibility of discrimination or stigmatization, a WHO spokesman said on Tuesday evening. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had previously announced in Geneva that a decision should be made shortly.
The term monkeypox, for example, can indicate an origin from Africa, the spokesman said. Until May, the virus and the disease, both of which are to be renamed, were known almost exclusively from Africa, but the name was already misleading: the virus was first detected in monkeys in a laboratory in Denmark in 1958. However, according to current knowledge, it should be more common among small rodents. The monkeys are only considered false hosts.
When the corona virus emerged at the end of 2019, the WHO also acted quickly to prevent the spread of names such as “Wuhan virus”, named after the Chinese city where it was first detected. On February 11, 2020, the WHO named the novel virus Sars-CoV-2 and the disease it causes Covid-19.
Specialist studies (proof in Denmark)
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