The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced it is working with experts to change the name of the monkeypox virus after an international team of scientists warned of the “discriminatory” nature of the strain’s name. The virus has spread to more than 20 countries in recent weeks.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organisation “is working with partners and experts around the world to change the name, branch and disease of monkeypox virus” and will announce the addition of a new name as soon as possible.

A week ago, 30 scientists from Africa and worldwide wrote a paper titled “The Urgent Need for a Non-discriminatory and Non-Stigmatising Nomenclature for Monkeypox Virus.”

The WHO decision also comes a year after the global health agency assigned Greek letter names to Covid variants to reduce discrimination because the strains are named after the places where they were found.

A WHO spokesperson told Forbes that monkeypox was named before global health agencies developed guidelines against using geographic regions or animal names.

The spokesperson added that the process of naming diseases should “minimise negative impacts” and avoid offending any “cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic group”.

Currently, the World Health Organisation lists two different monkeypox strains on its website: the Central African (Congo Basin) clade and the West African clade.