The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that it had renamed the monkeypox variants, replacing the names of African regions with Roman numerals, which are considered stigmatizing.
• Also read: Thousands of foreigners rush to Montreal to get vaccinated against monkeypox
These new variant names make it possible to take note of the current reality of the disease. While this has long been limited to a dozen African countries, the vast majority of new cases this year have been detected elsewhere in the world, particularly in the United States, Europe and Brazil.
In a press release, the WHO also notes that it is conducting a wide online consultation process to change the disease’s name, which is also seen as misleading and discriminatory given that the virus is not only associated with monkeys but has been detected in many became animals, especially rodents.
The variants, also called clades, have so far been named after regions or countries of Africa, with the West African tribe and that of the Congo Basin (Central Africa) being the second much deadlier than its cousin.
In early June, some thirty scholars, many from Africa, wrote to a forum calling for these names to be changed, citing the urgent need to “establish a nomenclature that is neither discriminatory nor stigmatizing”.
They were heard by the WHO, which brought together virologists and public health experts on August 8 to reach a consensus on new terminology.
“A consensus was reached to designate the former Congo Basin (Central Africa) clade as clade one (I) and the former West African clade as clade two (II),” the WHO said on Friday.
Further: “It was agreed that Clade II consists of two subclades. (…) Therefore, the new naming convention includes Clade I, Clade IIa and Clade IIb, the latter mainly referring to the group of variants that are widespread in the global epidemic of 2022,” WHO added.
The new clade names are effective immediately.
The disease’s name – monkeypox – is inherited from the conditions under which the disease was discovered in the 1950s: Danish researchers had discovered it in monkeys in their laboratory.
More than 31,665 cases and 12 deaths have been reported worldwide, according to the WHO, which issued its highest alert level in late July to step up the fight against the disease.