(Xinhua) To avoid racist language and stigmatization, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday recommended renaming the monkeypox virus as "mbox".

The WHO said in a press release that both names -- monkeypox and Mumbox -- will be used in tandem for one year while the first name is phased out.

The change comes after a number of individuals and countries expressed concern in several meetings and asked the World Health Organization to suggest a way forward to change the name.

The transition period aims to ease experts' concerns about the confusion caused by the name change in the midst of a global outbreak. It also gives time to complete the process of updating the International Classification of Diseases and updating the publications of the World Health Organization.

Last July, the World Health Organization officially declared an outbreak of monkeypox in several countries outside the traditional endemic areas in Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the highest level of alert the WHO can issue.

According to the World Health Organization, as of Saturday, 110 member countries had reported 81,107 laboratory-confirmed cases and 1,526 probable cases, including 55 deaths.