Minimize The Negative Impact, WHO Change The Name 'Money Cary Becomes Mpox'

Illustration of monkeypox. (Wikimedia Commons/CDC/Brian WJ Mahy)

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it would start using the term mpox, as a synonym for monkeypox, and urged others to follow suit, after receiving complaints that the current disease name was racist and stigmatizing.

"The two names will be used simultaneously for one year while the 'roypoe' is abolished," the WHO said, launching CNA November 28.

"WHO will adopt the term mpox in its communications, and encourage others to follow these recommendations, to minimize the continuing negative impact of current names and from the adoption of new names."

Previously, WHO launched a public consultation process to find a new name for the disease earlier this year.

It said monkeypox was discovered in 1958 and named after the first animal to show symptoms, largely spread across a group of countries in western and central Africa to this year.

The disease was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But in May, cases of fever-induced disease, muscle aches, and skin lesions such as large boils began to spread rapidly throughout the world, especially among men who had sex with men.

To date, 110 countries have reported about 80,000 confirmed cases and 55 deaths, according to WHO data.