ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Monkeypox is getting a name change in parts of the country, but the change has not made its way to the Lehigh Valley yet.
New York City’s health department recently announced it now will refer to the infectious viral disease as MPV.
- New York City's health department has changed the name by which it refers to monkeypox to MPV
- Lehigh Valley health organizations, and those across Pennsylvania, have not changed what it calls the disease
- There have been 812 cases of Monkeypox reported in Pennsylvania and 27,317 nationwide
“The previous name is an inaccurate and stigmatizing label for a virus that is primarily affecting a community that has already suffered a long history of bigotry,” according to a statement on NYC Health website.
“The previous name is an inaccurate and stigmatizing label for a virus that is primarily affecting a community that has already suffered a long history of bigotry"NYC Health
The name change has not taken effect across the country. The Pennsylvania Department of Health said, “the department has not made a change.”
Meanwhile, Lehigh Valley Health Network said there has not been any formal discussion of a name change for the healthcare system.
“The naming of species is the responsibility of the [World Health Organization’s] International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, and we will follow whatever recommendation they put forth,” an LVHN spokesperson said.
Discussion of a name change by the WHO has been documented on its website, but a new official title has not been released.
“The monkeypox virus was named upon first discovery in 1958, before current best practices in naming diseases and viruses were adopted,” WHO said.
St. Luke’s University Health Network was not immediately available for comment on whether it will adopt a name change for monkeypox.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the number of monkeypox cases nationwide, as well as in Pennsylvania, has increased slowly in the past month.
There now have been 812 cases reported in Pennsylvania — the seventh-highest total among the 50 states — and 27,317 nationwide, according to the CDC.
The average weekly total of new cases nationally fell from 583 on Aug. 1 to 63 on Oct. 12, the most recent day available, the CDC said.
