- Obesity Genes Mean Some Folks Must Exercise More for Same Results
- SCOTUS Appears Skeptical of Arguments to Curb Abortion Pill Access
- Sleep Troubles Can Raise Your Blood Pressure: Study
- ADHD Meds Tied to Heart Damage in Young Adult Users
- Could Regular Exercise Cure Your Insomnia? New Research Says Yes
- Black Men Less Likely to Receive Heart Transplants Than White Men or Women
- Could Deep Frying Foods Harm the Brain? Rat Study Suggests It Might
- Human Brains Are Getting Larger With Each Generation
- Animals Catch More Viruses From Us Than We Do From Them
- Young Adults With Migraine May Face Higher Stroke Risk
Monkeypox May Get New Name to Curb Stigma
MONDAY, Aug. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Monkeypox could soon get a new name.
The World Health Organization announced Friday that it plans to rename the condition to eliminate any derogatory or racist connotations, a decision in alignment with current best practices for naming diseases.
“The naming of virus species is the responsibility of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), which has a process underway for the name of the monkeypox virus,” WHO said in a statement.
The U.N. health agency made the decision after a meeting with scientists. WHO will hold an open forum to consider new names not offensive to specific groups.
The agency has already renamed two families (clades) of the disease, removing geographic area names including Congo Basin and West Africa and replacing them with monikers such as Clade one and two or with Roman numerals I and II.
The intent is to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare,” WHO said.
According to the Associated Press, some other diseases still do carry names from geographic areas where they began or were first identified, including Japanese encephalitis, Marburg virus, Spanish influenza and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
More information:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on monkeypox.
SOURCE: WHO statement, Aug. 12, 2022; Associated Press
Source: HealthDay
Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.