On Monday, the World Health Organization announced that it is renaming monkeypox as “mpox”. The organization cites concerns about “racist and stigmatizing language” surrounding the original name of the disease.
Human monkeypox was first named in 1970, after the virus that causes the disease was discovered in captive monkeys in 1958. While mpox is now the preferred term for the virus, both names will be used simultaneously for one year while the old name is phased out.
Views from experts and countries–as well as the general public–were gathered in an effort to select the new name.
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