discussions around a Monkeypox Name Change, It started with the impetus of the World Health Organization (WHO), which some countries and experts found humiliating.

The company’s chief executive assured last week that “announcements will be made as soon as possible” about this change. WHOTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The goal is not just to change the name of the monkey flower, already available in over 40 countries, but also the name of different strains.

These strains are named after the African regions or countries where they were first found. For example, the strain from West Africa or the (more deadly) strain from the Congo Basin.

At the beginning of June, about thirty scientists, mostly Africans, published an open letter. they demanded to change this nomenclature thus “not discriminatory or stigmatizing”.

According to these scientists, it should simply be said, considering that a new version of the virus has been circulating the world since May. hMPXV (h per person).

Available all over the world

After a first wave in ten African countries, 84% of new cases were detected in Europe this year, and 12% in the Americas.

In total, around 2,100 cases of monkeypox have been detected worldwide this year.

Additionally, calling the disease monkeypox basically implies associating it with the disease. African countries, Criticize some experts.

“It’s not really a disease that can be attributed to monkeys,” virologist Oyewale Tomori of Redeemer University in Nigeria told AFP.

The disease was discovered by Danish scientists. 1950s overalls caged in laboratories.

However, in real life, the animals that transmit the disease are mostly rodents.

The African continent has historically been associated with major pandemics.

“We saw it first in AIDS in the 1980s, in 2013 in the Ebola virus, then in covid and the epidemic. supposed South African variantss» epidemiologist Oliver Restif explained to AFP.

“This is about the wider debate and the stigma of Africa,” he denounced.

Even this expert criticizes the images they use most media Communication to show the news about monkey pox.

While these were often “old photos of African patients”, he claimed that in reality current cases were “much less serious”.