The subgroups of the monkeypox virus will be identified with Roman letters in the future. Instead of the Congo Basin or West Africa group, the designations are now subgroups I and II, as the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday evening in Geneva. Virologists had requested the renaming because the regional names were misleading and stigmatizing.
Furthermore, no decision has yet been made on a new name for the disease monkeypox. This should also be given a neutral name.
Monkeys have already been attacked in Brazil because people mistook that the disease, which has been appearing in many countries since May, is transmitted by monkeys. In fact, the disease is only so named because it was first discovered in monkeys in 1958. But monkeys have nothing to do with the recent outbreaks. Rather, people become infected through close physical contact with other people.
Suggestions for a new name can be made on a WHO website. Anyone can put forward serious ideas there. On Friday evening there was a proposal submitted this week from Canada to name the disease – Monkeypox in English – Mpox.
The virus itself is also to be given a new name. An independent expert council (ICTV) is responsible for this, which has not yet made a decision. According to the experts, there are two further subgroups in subgroup II, which are now classified as IIa and IIb.
