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Monkeypox: What you need to know
The chief scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security says in the ‘special report’ what people should do if they contract the virus.
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The World Health Organization announced on Tuesday that it will rename the monkeypox virus, which has infected more than 1,600 people in 39 countries this year, after a group of scientists raised concerns the name could carry stigma.
“WHO is also working with partners and experts from around the world to change the name of the monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes,” World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference on Tuesday. “We will announce the new names as soon as possible.”
The announcement comes after a group of more than 30 international scientists urged the health community last week to change the name of the virus.
“The prevailing perception in the international media and scientific literature is that MPXV is endemic in humans in some African countries. However, it is well known that almost all MPXV outbreaks in Africa prior to the 2022 outbreak were the result of animal-to-human transmission and only rarely have there been reports of sustained human-to-human transmission,” the scientists wrote on March 10 .
“In the context of the current global outbreak, the continued reference to and nomenclature of this virus as African is not only inaccurate but also discriminatory and stigmatizing.”
In this graphic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, monkeypox virus symptoms are shown on a patient’s hand.
(CDC/Getty Images)
The WHO lists two known groups of monkeypox on its website, “one in West Africa (WA) and one in the Congo Basin region (CB).
The group of scientists wrote that the use of this nomenclature “contradicts best practice of avoiding geographic locations in disease and disease group nomenclature.”
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According to the CDC, scientists first found monkeypox in two outbreaks of a smallpox-like disease in monkeys at a research facility in Denmark in 1958. The first human case was found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.
An electronic microscope image shows the monkeypox virus in this photo made available by the Unidad de Microscopía Electrónica del ISCIII in Madrid on Thursday, May 26, 2022.
(Unidad de Microscopía Electrónica del ISCIII, via AP)
The biggest recent outbreak is in the UK, where health officials have detected 470 cases.
Human-to-human transmission of the virus occurs primarily through direct contact with infected people or contaminated surfaces.
HAWAII REPORTS THIRD CASE OF PROBABLE MONKEY POXEN
Ghebreyesus also said the WHO will convene an emergency meeting next week to decide whether the spread of monkeypox should be considered a public health emergency around the world.
A health care worker prepares a syringe at a monkeypox vaccination clinic operated by the CIUSSS health authorities, June 6, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
(REUTERS/Christinne Puss)
“The monkeypox outbreak is unusual and worrisome,” Ghebreyesus said Tuesday. “For this reason, I have decided to convene the Emergency Committee under international health regulations next week to assess whether this outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.”
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The CDC has reported 65 cases of monkeypox in the United States, including 15 in California and 11 in New York.
Monkeypox has similar symptoms to smallpox but is milder. Infected individuals typically develop flu-like symptoms, followed by a rash that turns into lesions.
The WHO has had a rough run in recent years, facing accusations that it failed to keep China transparent as the COVID pandemic swept from Wuhan to the world, and then accusations that it used the Greek letter Xi skipped when she named variants of the virus to avoid, insulting China’s communist leader, President Xi Jinping.
