The World Health Organisation has announced that they will rename Monkeypox.
The announcement comes just days after a group of over 30 scientists penned a letter asking for the change. The scientists believe that the current name is ‘discriminatory’ and ‘stigmatizing’.
In a letter published June 10, scientists wrote that while the origin of the current monkeypox outbreak is still unknown, there is an inaccurate narrative linking all cases to Africa.
At this stage it is now known what the new name will be.
So far there have been 1,600 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the world from 39 countries this year.
Monkeypox was named because it was first identified in 1958 in colonies of monkeys. The first human case of the virus was found in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the CDC.
