A new surprise about meningitis and monkeypox

There has been some news about meningitis and the monkeypox virus, which has spread in many countries during the last period.

 Some websites and social media pages circulated news about the spread of meningitis cases among school students in North Sinai Governorate.

Meningitis among school students

The media center of the Council of Ministers communicated with the Ministries of Education, Technical Education, Health and Population, and North Sinai Governorate, and these reports were denied.

 The media center confirmed that there is no truth to the spread of cases of meningitis among school students in North Sinai Governorate, and that no cases of meningitis among school students in the governorate have been detected.

Random medical examination

The media center stated that random medical examinations were conducted on school students by health insurance doctors and the Preventive Medicine Department of the Health Directorate.

The health status of school students was also followed up by health visitors, as it was found that all the results of the medical examination were free of any cases of meningitis among the students, and they indicated commitment to applying all precautionary measures to prevent and deal with infectious diseases within educational classes

 in various schools, in coordination with the Directorate County health.

Change the name of monkeypox

On the other hand, the World Health Organization decided to change the name of monkeypox to (mbox), after receiving complaints about the currently common name suggesting (racism and stigma).

"The two terms will be used concurrently for a year, before the term monkeypox is phased out," the organization said in a statement.

The World Health Organization began consultations several months ago to choose a new name for the disease, and received more than 200 proposals. She explained that the experts settled on the name (mbox), for its ease of pronunciation, in addition to other factors.

Mbox virus (monkeypox) was discovered in 1958 and named after the first animal to show symptoms, and its spread was concentrated in western and central African countries until this year.

Almost 100 countries where mbox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease.

The World Health Organization has a mandate to give new names to known diseases, and generally seeks to avoid linking any disease or virus to a country, region, animal or ethnic group.