The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced new names for variants of the monkeypox virus. This is to avoid causing any cultural or social offense, the WHO said in a statement.
The Xinhua news agency reported that a global team of experts convened by the WHO decided to choose a new name.
‘Monkeypox virus was named when it was first discovered in 1958. Major variants were identified by the geographical areas where they are known to circulate.’
Experts will now call the former Congo basin group (group of variants) in Central Africa Clade I and the former West African group Clade II. The second group consists of two subclades, Clade IIa and Clade IIb, of which Clade IIb is the major group of variants circulating during the 2022 outbreak.
The global health body added that the new names for the groups should be used immediately.
Newly identified viruses, related diseases, and viral variants must be named to avoid offending any cultural, social, national, regional, occupational, or ethnic group and minimize any negative impact on trade, tourism, tourism or animal welfare, Ai said.
Monkey smallpox
WHO officially declared at the end of July that the monkeypox outbreak in many countries has now become a public health emergency of international concern.
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According to the WHO situation report on the monkeypox outbreak released Wednesday, there are now 27,814 laboratory-confirmed cases and 11 deaths from the disease in 89 countries and regions around the world, with Europe and the Americas being the hardest hit.
Source: IANS
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