Poxy McPoxface, TRUMP-22 or Mpox are just three ideas sent in so far as the World Health Organization seeks public suggestions for a new name for monkeypox.
Often disease names are chosen behind closed doors by a technical committee, but the WHO has this time decided to open up the process to the public.
After a slow start, dozens of website submissions have now been made from contributors including academics, doctors and a gay community activist.
Suggestions range from the technical OPOXID-22, submitted by Harvard Medical School doctor Jeremy Faust, to the farcical Poxy McPoxface, submitted by Andrew Yi in an allusion to Boaty McBoatface — the public choice for the name of a British polar research vessel.
Pressure has grown for a new name for the disease amid criticism that monkeys are not the original animal host, and concerns the name could be used in racist ways.
A group of leading scientists wrote a paper in June calling for a name that was "neutral, non-discriminatory and non-stigmatising".
Until this year, monkeypox mainly spread only in a group of countries in west and central Africa.
"It's very important we find a new name for monkeypox because this is best practice not to create any offence to [a group], a region, a country, an animal," WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said on Tuesday.
One of the more popular submissions so far is Mpox, submitted by Samuel Miriello, director of men's health organisation RÉZO, which is already using the name in its outreach campaigns in Montreal, Canada.
"When you remove the monkey imagery, people seem to understand more quickly that there's an emergency that needs to be taken seriously," he said.
Another proposal, TRUMP-22, is an apparent reference to Donald Trump, who used the controversial term "Chinese virus" for COVID-19, although its author said it stood for "Toxic Rash of Unrecognised Mysterious Provenance of 2022".
Submissions mocking the gay community had earlier been posted but were later removed from the WHO website.
The WHO has the mandate to assign new names to existing diseases under the International Classification of Diseases.
It has already renamed monkeypox virus variants, or clades, changing them from African regions to Roman numerals.
The WHO said its naming decision would be made according to scientific validity, acceptability, ease of pronunciation and use across different languages.
"I am sure we will not come up with a ridiculous name," said Ms Chaib.
Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 and named after the first animal to show symptoms.
The WHO declared the current outbreak a public health emergency last month, having reported more than 32,000 cases from over 80 countries.
Reuters
