The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday that in a bid to stop stigmatization, Monkeypox is to be renamed mpox in English.
Monkeypox received its name because the virus was originally identified in monkeys kept for research in Denmark in 1958, but the disease is found in a number of animals, and most frequently in rodents.
According to the reports, the disease was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the spread among humans since then mainly limited to certain West and Central African countries where it is endemic.
But in May, cases of the disease, which causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, began spreading rapidly around the world, mainly among men who have sex with men.
The WHO reveals that about 81,107 cases and 55 deaths have so far been reported from 110 countries.
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