The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting next week to discuss the outbreak of monkeypox, and whether its name should be changed, according to the Voice of America radio website.
This comes against the background of requests made by health experts, a few days ago, to avoid stigmatizing the disease with one animal species or one continent without another.
About a week ago, a group of scientists said in a statement, “In the context of the current global outbreak, the continued reference to and classification of this virus as being African is not only inaccurate but also discriminatory and stigmatizing.”
The most obvious manifestation of this stigma, the specialists went on, is the use of images of African patients to portray smallpox lesions in the mainstream media.
Recently, the African Foreign Press Association issued a statement urging the global media to stop using images of Africans to highlight the outbreak in Europe.”
According to the description of the World Health Organization’s website, monkeypox is “a zoonotic disease, transmitted from animals to humans”.
Human-to-human transmission, according to the World Health Organization, is limited, but can occur “through contact with body fluids, skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as the mouth or throat, and respiratory droplets”.
So far, more than 1,600 confirmed monkeypox cases and about 1,500 suspected cases have been reported from seven countries where the disease has been detected for years and 32 newly affected countries, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The European Office of the World Health Organization announced, on Wednesday, that Europe is the epicenter of monkey pox, expressing concern about the risks of endemicity of the disease in it.
Hans Kluge, director of the World Health Organization – Europe branch – which includes 53 countries, including countries from Central Asia, said in a press conference that “Europe remains the center of this wave, which is at the height of its breadth. Twenty-five countries have reported more than 1,500 cases, or 85%.” of the global total.
Monkeypox, known to humans since 1970, is a rare disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans through infected animals.
The disease initially causes a strong rise in temperature and quickly develops into a rash with the formation of scales. It is often benign and generally heals after two or three weeks.