Following a series of consultations with global experts, WHO will begin using a new preferred term “mpox” as a synonym for monkeypox.
Key points
- Both names (mpox and monkeypox) will be used simultaneously for one year while “monkeypox” is phased out.
- When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded in 2022, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO.
- In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name.
- Human monkeypox was given its name in 1970 (after the virus that causes the disease was discovered in captive monkeys in 1958), before the publication of WHO best practices in naming diseases, published in 2015.
- According to these best practices, new disease names should be given with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.
- Assigning new names to new and, very exceptionally, to existing diseases is the responsibility of WHO under the International Classification of Diseases and the WHO Family of International Health Related Classifications (WHO-FIC).
- The naming of viruses is the responsibility of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).
