WHO To Rename Monkeypox; You Can Send Your Suggestion. Know How

Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to rename monkeypox.

And the United Nations’ health body has created an open forum where suggestions can be submitted for a new name of the virus which has spread to 45 countries.

WHO said the ‘monkeypox’ term was given after the virus was first discovered in 1958. Thereafter, current best practices in naming diseases and viruses were adopted.

“Major variants were identified by the geographic regions where they were known to circulate. The current best practice is that newly-identified viruses, related disease, and virus variants should be given names with the aim to avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare,” WHO stated.

The global health agency, which has been looking to rename monkeypox since June, called an ad-hoc meeting on August 8 to let virologists and public health experts reach a consensus on new terminology.

“The group reached consensus on new nomenclature for the virus clades (virus variants) that is in line with best practices. They agreed on how the virus clades should be recorded and classified on genome sequence repository sites,” WHO’s statement added.

WHO said assigning new names to existing diseases is its responsibility under the ‘International Classification of Diseases’ (ICD).

The agency shared a link — https://icd.who.int/dev11 — where anyone can propose new names.