Worries over stigma are driving a push to rename monkeypox, but the process is
Public health experts have worried that stigma could steer people away from getting tested and vaccinated. A new name can help slow the spread of the disease, they say, but it needs to come quickly.
But that was months ago.
Scientists have been calling this virus “monkeypox” for 64 years.
The global push for the name change started this year, when an outbreak took off in countries where monkeypox was not commonly found.
New names for old viruses
The naming process had already been underway to reconsider the names of all orthopoxvirus species, WHO said in an email to CNN, including cowpox, horsepox, camelpox, raccoonpox and skunkpox, as well as monkeypox.
According to WHO taxonomy committee member Colin McInnes, the panel has a mandate to bring “virus species nomenclature into line with the way that most other forms of life are named.”
Traditionally, poxviruses were named after the animal in which the disease was first spotted, but that created some inconsistencies, he said.
The current species known as “monkeypox virus” and the others would then be renamed to “orthopoxvirus ‘something,’ ” he said in an email to CNN.
“It is the ‘something’ that is currently being debated,” McInnes wrote.
He said some scientists would prefer that the monkeypox name be kept in order to retain the link to 50 years of published research. Others would like a totally different name.
The WHO committee has until June 2023 to suggest changes.
Now, to remove any stigma that comes with naming a disease for a region or country, the Congo Basin clade will be called clade I. The former West African clade is clade II. A subvariant, clade IIb, is what is primarily in circulation in the current outbreak.
Dangerous stigma
Many scientists say WHO needs to work with more urgency.
Since the outbreak has largely affected gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men, stigma has been an ongoing concern for WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Experts are concerned that in addition to the barriers that make access to any kind of health care difficult, some people may not get the vaccine or get tested because of the stigma associated with the disease.
Dozens of suggestions
Read More: Worries over stigma are driving a push to rename monkeypox, but the process is