The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has warned that stigmatising language used in the coverage on the monkeypox virus could jeopardise public health, citing some portrayals of Africans and LGBTI people that “reinforce homophobic and racist stereotypes and exacerbate stigma”.
More than 100 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox virus have been reported so far in nearly 20 countries where the virus is not endemic. Most infections have been reported in Europe, but confirmed and suspected cases have been reported in the Middle East, North America and Australia.
