Monkeypox virus (microscopic image) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Democratic Republic in the Congo. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib on Tuesday said that human monkeypox was given its name without considering current best practices in naming diseases. Chaib said the best practice is not give offence to any ethnic group, region, country, or animal. Suggestions can be submitted at the website https://icd.who.int/dev11.

Some people are worried that the name “monkeypox” stigmatizes primates who have had little to do with its spread, and the continent those animals are often associated with.

The monkeypox virus was originally identified in 1958 in monkeys kept for research in Denmark, but the disease can be found in a number of animals, and most frequently in rodents.