The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to prevent a repetition of what happened with COVID-19. If the coronavirus caused a social and racial problem against people with Asian features by identifying them as “guilty” of the origin of the virus, they want to try to prevent the new strain of monkeypox from having the same effect. For this reason, the WHO has announced – through its social networks – that in the coming days it will change the name of monkeypox.
“They want to prevent it from being stigmatizing and racist,” they point out. Specifically, to prevent this from being a direct attack on Africa, West Africa or Nigeria. And it is that this decision by the WHO comes only a few days after a group of 30 scientists sign a document submitted to the organization asking for an urgent change of the name of the monkeypox precisely to avoid the racism implicit in the name. And the consequences that could derive from it.
According to the group of scientists, the current monkeypox does not have a clear link with the strains that have historically originated in regions of Africa or African people. “As of June 8, 2022, at least 1,111 human cases of MPXV have been confirmed or suspected, and cases have been detected in 44 countries. [7]. MPXV infection is usually caused by indirect events to humans from animals such as rodents, squirrels, and nonhuman primates. [1,4,5]. The virus can also be spread from one person to another through close contact with injuries, body fluids, respiratory droplets, and contaminated materials. [1,4]”, point in the report.
They demand “a nomenclature that is neutral, non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing more appropriate for the global health community”. Or what is the same, not to link the infections of monkeypox to black people in Africa, since there are data of contagion among people of other races.
The importance of clades with monkeypox
In this sense, the group of scientists points to the analysis of the clades or groups on which to carry out analysis. The studies provided to date point to 3 differentiated clades corresponding to West Africa, Central Africa and indirect events located in countries of the global north and human and non-human hosts. Scientists point to the creation of a new clade containing monkeypox genomes in the UK, Israel, Nigeria, USA and Singapore between 2017 and 2019. Based on this geographical disparity a new way of referring to monkeypox should be chosen. this world strain.
With 1,650 cases of monkeypox detected in the world, most of them are in the northern hemisphere at the moment. United Kingdom with 471, 124 in Canada and 65 in the United States. Linked to this, the organization of scientists has also asked the media to stop using images of African people to illustrate outbreaks in Europe or North America. Still far from becoming a pandemic, the WHO would be analyzing all the factors -including the origin of the strain- to determine the seriousness of the situation.