Monkeypox Disease Name Changed to Mpox by WHO: The World Health Organisation has changed the name of the disease Monkeypox to Mpox, as they receive complaints about the word Monkeypox conjuring up racist tropes and stigmatizing patients. The recommendation comes in the wake of outbreaks in Europe and the United States that began around six months ago.
December 2022 Current Affairs Quiz
Monkeypox Disease Name Changed to Mpox by WHO
Mpox has been circulating for decades in rural developing areas of Central and West Africa. WHO will adopt the term Mpox in its communications and encourages others to follow these recommendations. This decision was made in order to reduce the continued negative impact of the current name and the adoption of the new name. The name was inspired by a colony of caged lab monkeys in Denmark, where the virus was first identified by researchers. The WHO has promoted new criteria for naming infectious diseases. According to the recommendations, names should try to prevent needless negative impacts on travel, tourism, or animal welfare. The criteria also avoid causing any offense to culture, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups. The critics informed that Monkeypox reinforced ugly western stereotypes about Africa as a reservoir of pestilence and sexually transmitted pathogens. It was also advised that it contributed to racial beliefs strongly rooted in American culture that compare Black people to primates.