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The World Health Organization is considering renaming monkey flu, which has so far affected about 1,300 people in more than 20 countries.

The Bloomberg News Agency last week found that naming more than 30 international scientists for monkey flu was discriminatory and stigmatizing, citing an “urgent” need to change the name of the virus.

A spokesman for the World Health Organization said Monday that the current naming of monkey flu did not comply with the agency’s guidelines for avoiding naming geographical areas and animals for diseases.

It is reminiscent of the controversy over the name “SARS-Covid 2 virus”, which began when the World Health Organization changed the name of the virus worldwide and began to describe it as the Chinese virus or not. Wuhan virus.

The exact animal source of the monkey box found in various mammals is not yet known.

“In the context of the current global outbreak, the continued reference to and classifying this virus as Africa is not only misleading, it is discriminatory and stigmatizing,” the international team wrote in an online letter to Bloomberg.

A WHO spokesman added that the organization was currently consulting with experts in the field of orthopedic viruses, including selecting the most appropriate names for which monkey box belonged.

“Naming of diseases should be done with the aim of minimizing the negative impact and avoiding harm to any cultural, social, national, regional, occupational or ethnic group,” the spokesman concluded in an email to Bloomberg.

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