Why are they changing the name for monkeypox? What's the origin of the name?

The strains of the monkeypox virus have been given new names — and the disease itself is set to be renamed too.  (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases via AP)

A group of experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) has given new names to the monkeypox virus variants.

And the names for the virus and the disease itself look set to change soon too.

Let's unpack the changes and why this is happening. 

What are the new names?

There are two monkeypox variants — one of those having two subvariants.

After the WHO-convened meeting of virologists and public health experts, it was decided:

• The Congo Basin variant will now be referred to as Clade one
• The West African variant will now be referred to as Clade two

The experts agreed the second clade consisted of two subclades.

And they decided on a naming convention with a Roman numeral for the clade number and a lower-case letter for the subclades.

So the new names are:

• Clade I
• Clade IIa
• Clade IIb

Clade IIb is the group of variants dominating the current global outbreak. 

The WHO says these name changes should come into effect immediately. 

What is a clade?

It's a term for a group of organisms that come from a common ancestor. 

Are they changing the name 'monkeypox'?

It looks very much like it, but we don't know when that will happen yet. 

The WHO is holding an open consultation to come up with the new disease name — and is currently taking suggestions.

It says the responsibility of renaming existing diseases falls under the WHO International Classification of Diseases and the WHO Family of International Health Related Classifications.

The name of the virus that causes the disease is also likely to be changed by the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses.

Remember, the disease is different from the virus that causes the disease — like how COVID-19 is the name of the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

Monkeypox was given its name after being detected in research monkeys back in 1958.  (CDC via UN)

What's the origin of monkeypox?

Monkeypox was given its name because it was first identified in monkeys used in a research lab in Denmark in 1958, the WHO says. 

But it wasn't detected in humans until 1970 — the first confirmed case was in a nine-month-old boy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This was all long before the WHO came up with its disease name conventions in 2015.

And the major variants were named after the places they were known to circulate.

Why change the names?

To reduce stigma and discrimination and be more accurate. 

In an open letter on a virus discussion forum, 29 scientists called for the urgent renaming of the monkeypox strains to something more neutral. 

In essence, they said the monkeypox naming conventions gave the impression that the disease was an African problem. That's not only because of the geographic variant names but, as others have pointed out, because monkeys aren't often associated with Western countries. 

A WHO fact sheet on monkeypox says that, since the disease was first identified, most confirmed cases from previous outbreaks have been reported in the Congo Basin and central and western Africa. 

But in their letter, the group of scientists said the current outbreak has been "detected without a clear link to Africa".

The virus had been detected in 50 countries between January 1 and June 22, according to the latest WHO update.

Of those laboratory-confirmed cases, 86 per cent were in the WHO European Region and 2 per cent were in the African Region:

This map shows confirmed monkeypox cases from official public sources, between January 1 and June 22 — the darker blues indicating higher case numbers.  (Supplied: World Health Organization )

"In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African, is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatising," the scientists wrote. 

"The most obvious manifestation of this is the use of photos of African patients to depict the pox lesions in mainstream media in the global north."

And this is in line with the WHO's thinking. 

"Current best practice is that newly-identified viruses, related diseases and virus variants should be given names with the aim to avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimise any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare," it said. 

Also, monkeys aren't the only hosts of the virus — it's also hosted by rodents like squirrels and dormice.

In fact, it's still unclear which animal is the original natural host. 

"The natural reservoir of monkeypox has not yet been identified, though rodents are the most likely," a WHO fact sheet says. 

What could the new name be?

It's hard to say. 

To get an idea, we can look at the WHO's best-practice guidelines for naming human diseases:

Disease names may include:	Examples:
Clinical symptoms, physiological processes, and anatomical or pathological references/systems affected	Respiratory, neurologic Hepatitis, encephalitis Pulmonary, cardiac, Syndrome, disease, fever
Age group, population of patients	Juvenile Paediatric Senile Maternal
Time course, epidemiology, origin	Acute Chronic Progressive Transient Contagious Congenital
Severity	Severe Mild
Seasonality	Winter Summer Seasonal
Environment	Subterranean Desert River Swamp
Causal pathogen and associated descriptors	Coronavirus Influenza Novel Subtype
Year of first detection or reporting	2014 2019
Arbitrary identifier	Alpha, Beta I,II,III, 1,2,3

The WHO says disease names shouldn't include:

• Geographic locations 
• People's names
• Species/class of animal or food
• Cultural, population, industry or occupational references 
• Terms that incite undue fear