HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay Information) – Monkeypox might quickly get a brand new identify.
The World Well being Group introduced Friday that it plans to rename the situation to remove any derogatory or racist connotations, a choice in alignment with present greatest practices for naming illnesses.
“The naming of virus species is the duty of the Worldwide Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), which has a course of underway for the identify of the monkeypox virus,” WHO mentioned in an announcement.
The U.N. well being company made the choice after a gathering with scientists. WHO will maintain an open discussion board to contemplate new names not offensive to particular teams.
The company has already renamed two households (clades) of the illness, eradicating geographic space names together with Congo Basin and West Africa and changing them with monikers akin to Clade one and two or with Roman numerals I and II.
The intent is to “keep away from inflicting offense to any cultural, social, nationwide, regional, skilled, or ethnic teams, and decrease any damaging impression on commerce, journey, tourism or animal welfare,” WHO mentioned.
In accordance with the Related Press, another illnesses nonetheless do carry names from geographic areas the place they started or had been first recognized, together with Japanese encephalitis, Marburg virus, Spanish influenza and Center Jap Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
Extra data:
The U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has extra on monkeypox.
SOURCE : WHO assertion, Aug. 12, 2022; Related Press
