Monkeypox Renamed Mpox to Counter Stigma


世界卫生组织将猴痘的英文名称重新命名为mpox，这项不同寻常的努力旨在减少该组织所称的与这种病毒性疾病相关的污名化和种族主义。


猴痘是在丹麦的一组实验室猴子中首次发现。世卫组织对一种旧的疾病进行重新命名并不常见。

世界卫生组织(World Health Organization, 简称WHO)将猴痘(monkeypox)的英文名称重新命名为mpox，这项不同寻常的努力旨在减少该组织所称的与这种病毒性疾病相关的污名化和种族主义。 6park.com
The World Health Organization renamed monkeypox as mpox, an unusual effort to mitigate stigma and racism that it said came to be associated with the viral disease. 6park.com
  
WHO周一表示，促使该组织做出这一决定的原因是，在今年早些时候该疾病开始在全球蔓延后，网上和其他场合出现了有关该疾病的种族主义和污名化语言的报道。多年来，猴痘主要局限于西非和中非的部分地区，但今年早些时候，主要通过男男性行为者的网络传播到世界各地。得益于疫苗接种或感染所产生的免疫力的积累，以及感染风险最高人群所采取的预防措施，现在的猴痘病例数正在减少。 6park.com
The agency said Monday that the decision was prompted by reports of racist and stigmatizing language online and in other settings after the disease started spreading globally earlier this year. Mpox was for many years mostly confined to parts of West and Central Africa but earlier this year spread around the world, mainly through networks of men who have sex with men. Cases are now declining, thanks to a buildup of immunity from vaccination or infection, and precautions by people at most risk of catching the virus. 6park.com
  
WHO表示，已就该疾病的潜在新名称咨询了全球专家。WHO是国际公认疾病名称的全球权威组织。该组织说，为避免在一轮全球疫情期间出现混乱，在旧名被逐步停用的一年时间里，新旧名称都可使用。 6park.com
The WHO, the global authority on internationally recognized disease names, said it consulted global experts on potential new names for the disease. It said both old and new names could be used for one year while the old name is phased out, to avoid confusion in the midst of a global outbreak. 6park.com
  
WHO在2015年发布了关于新型疾病命名的指导方针，该方针规定不得使用特定人群、地点或动物的名字。长期以来，使用特定人群、地点或动物名字的惯例在疾病命名中很常见，例如阿尔茨海默氏病(Alzheimer)、中东呼吸综合症(Middle East respiratory syndrome)和“水痘”(Chickenpox)。WHO重新命名一种旧疾病的情况并不常见，但也不是没有先例。例如，20世纪60年代，该组织撤销了将Mongolism作为唐氏综合症(Down syndrome)的一个名称的用法。 6park.com
The agency in 2015 issued guidelines on the naming of novel diseases, which rule out using names of particular people, places or animals. Such conventions were long common in the naming of diseases. Think of Alzheimer’s disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome and chickenpox. It is rare for the WHO to rename an old disease, but not unprecedented. In the 1960s, it withdrew the term Mongolism as a name for Down syndrome, for example. 6park.com