The City of New York on Tuesday (July 27) called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to rename monkeypox, monkeypox in English, a name considered stigmatizing and which risks pushing patients to isolate themselves rather than seek treatment.
“We are increasingly concerned about the potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects that messages about the ‘monkeypox’ virus can have on [des] already vulnerable communitieswrites New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan in a letter to WHO Director-General Dr.r Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The latter had also hinted at this possible change in mid-June, as Mr. Vasan recalls in his letter.
WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (USPPI) for monkeypox on Saturday. This is the highest alert level for the institution, which has used it for only the seventh time.
According to the city health commissioner, this “terminology” and also “rooted in a history of racism and hurt for communities of color”. In his letter, he recalls the negative effects of false information during the emergence of the AIDS virus (HIV) or of racism suffered by Asian communities after the Covid-19 pandemic, which US President Donald Trump had described as “Chinese virus”.
“Traumatic Feelings of Racism and Stigma”
“Continuing to use the term ‘monkeypox’ to describe the current outbreak can rekindle these traumatic feelings of racism and stigma, especially for people of color and other people of color, as well as members of LGBTQIA+ communities, and can avoid to use vital health services for this reason”adds Ashwin Vasan.
Anyone can get monkeypox, but since its emergence in Europe and the United States, the virus has overwhelmingly spread among men who have sex with men.
New York is the hardest-hit city in the United States in terms of the number of cases, with 1,092 infections detected since the beginning of the epidemic. More than 15,000 have been confirmed in 74 countries so far this year.
