Opinion – Darwin and God: Smallpox attack on monkeys is absurd, say researchers

I have avoided as much as possible using the term “monkeypox” to refer to the emerging disease that has affected thousands of people around the world, and it is not for mere preciousness, as the reader will be able to see in detail in the statement below. The lack of understanding about the causes of the disease, which have absolutely nothing to do with monkeys, in fact, has led to a series of attacks against the animals in Brazil, a kind of cruel and completely useless action to prevent the epidemic.

Taking this into account, the Brazilian Society of Primatology produced an open letter explaining why it recommends the use of the term “new smallpox” to designate the disease, at least temporarily, while the WHO (World Health Organization) does not reach a consensus on a new designation. A column I wrote earlier on the topic for this Sheet is quoted in the text, which I am very honored. The primatologist signs the statement Gustavo Rodrigues Canalepresident of the institution, and Flávio Guimarães da Fonseca, president of the Brazilian Society of Virology. Both are researchers of the highest caliber, whom I’ve had the honor of interviewing a few times. I encourage blog readers to read the open letter and pass on the information, which is very relevant and can help to preserve our damaged biodiversity. Next, the text.

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Once again, Brazilian monkeys suffer from human actions triggered by lack of information or misinformation, as happened between 2015 and 2018, when we went through the worst epidemic of wild yellow fever ever recorded in Brazil. Now, in the year 2022, the same ignorance afflicts again. Faced with the outbreak of “Monkey Smallpox”, primates have been brutally punished and killed for lack of correct information about the transmission of the disease, as recently reported by the press.

An erroneous, mistaken and unfounded association causes the name of the disease and the virus to indicate monkeys as the origin of this viral strain. In a previous note, the Brazilian Society of Primatology had already clarified that the emergence of the virus occurred from wild rodents. However, in 1958, in Denmark, some captive monkeys were infected, which led to the accidental discovery of the virus from samples of these animals, causing the disease to be named as “monkeypox”, translated into Portuguese as “smallpox”. of the monkeys”. In fact, even in Africa, the origin of the virus, monkeys are not important in the disease transmission cycle.

The unjust incrimination of the monkeys made some researchers and journalists sympathize with the cause, triggering a great effort to demystify monkeys as the transmitters of smallpox and pointing out rodents as the probable natural hosts of the virus in Africa, in accordance with the scientific findings. However, we know that having the name “monkey smallpox” linked to the disease, even if only in journalistic headlines, has been generating a misunderstanding on the part of the population, leading to retaliation, persecution, aggression and death of Brazilian primates.

Researchers around the world signed a letter asking the World Health Organization (WHO) to change the name of the disease. While sympathetic to the request, the WHO has not yet indicated a date for renaming it. In view of the above, and in order to avoid an increase in aggression against animals in the country with the greatest diversity of primates in the world. We emphasize that about one in five species of Brazilian primates are threatened with extinction.

We strongly recommend that, while the WHO does not officially change the name “Smallpox of the Monkeys”, the disease is provisionally called “Nova Smallpox” in all communication vehicles, a term coined by journalist Reinaldo José Lopes, in his article published on the 6th /08/2022 in Folha de São Paulo, maintaining the term “Monkeypox” in technical-scientific texts, such as bulletins released by the Ministry of Health, as this term is recognized worldwide and already used by the WHO. For the reasons already mentioned, we also strongly recommend that primate images not be used in news related to this disease.

For us from the Brazilian Society of Primatology, a society with more than 40 years of experience that involves professors, researchers, scientists and conservationists and whose main mission is to protect Brazilian primates, it is unacceptable that these animals are attacked and killed because of misinformation. . In addition to being harmless, and important for the proper functioning of our ecosystems and biodiversity, primates play the role of sentinel, that is, when affected by diseases, they signal with their illness and death that a disease is circulating and, with this, indicate the need to carry out prevention and control actions, such as vaccination campaigns that bring greater protection to us humans.