The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to rename monkeypox to MPOX in an effort to de-stigmatize the virus that impacted the vaccination campaign in the U.S. previously this year. Biden officials privately exerting pressure on WHO urging to change the name of virus that might be declare on Wednesday publically. Monkeypox is a virus that originates in wild animals like rodents and primates and transmit to people while coming in contact with the virus from an animal, human or materials contaminated with the virus.
Monkeypox cases have been recorded after COVID-19 cases in early May 2022 in non-endemic nations and still recording in endemic nations. There have been nearly 30,000 infections in the US documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority of confirmed cases are found with travel histories visits to Europe and North America rather than West or Central America where the monkeypox virus is endemic, according to the WHO report.
Washington is worried about the virus name was discriminating and affecting the environment in the country. The Emergency Committee mentioned that there is some progress in the recovery from multi-country outbreak of monkeypox since the last meeting, including the emerging information on the effectiveness of behavioral interventions and vaccines, WHO reported.
This follows the third meeting of the International Health Regulations with the Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox, other countries also responded. WHO reported that at the regional level the risk was high as the WHO regions of the Americas, reducing cases from high to mid-level in the European region, remaining moderate for the WHO regions of Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, and South-East Asia, and remaining low in the Western Pacific Region. Last month, WHO mentioned that Monkeypox continues to meet the criteria of IHR for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).