Epidemiologists are renaming the disease Alaskapox out of fear that the name of the illness may hamper tourism and stigmatize the state.
Alaskapox, now called Borealpox, gained media spotlight in January following the abrupt death of an elderly man in the remote Kenai Peninsula after he was hospitalized with the disease last November.
Joseph McLaughlin, Alaska’s state epidemiologist who discovered the virus, told the magazine Science, “It became clear that the name Alaskapox could be stigmatizing to the state.”
Alsakapox was discovered in 2015 when a woman in Fairbanks was treated for a mysterious lesion. She recovered quickly from the condition.
McLaughlin coauthored several papers about the virus since the first case, including identifying its genetic sequence. By the end of 2023, only five very mild cases of the infection had been identified in humans, all of whom had recovered.
According to the Alaska Department of Health, symptoms included one or more skin lesions, swollen lymph nodes, and joint and muscle pain. To date, there has been no human-to-human transmission of the disease, but other pox viruses can be spread between humans via direct contact with lesions.
Current data suggest Alaskapox primarily affects small mammals, such as voles and shrews. Domestic pets who hunt these small creatures may play a role in spreading the virus to humans.
The one known person who died this year from the disease was reportedly undergoing cancer treatment and likely had a more severe case of the illness due to his suppressed immune system.
McLaughlin said that when he and his colleagues originally named the virus, the moniker “Alaskapox” “didn’t raise any red flags” due to the small number of mild cases.
“We had no idea that it would generate so much interest outside of Alaska,” McLaughlin said.
Scientists have been increasingly sensitive to virus names in recent years, attempting to avoid both technical confusion and offensiveness.
In 2022, the World Health Organization announced the change of the name “monkeypox” to “mpox” amid a global outbreak of the disease that attracted heavy media and political attention.
“When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO,” according to the organization at the time.
The virus that causes mpox was discovered first in captive monkeys in 1958. The human variant of the disease was named in 1970.
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It is too early to tell whether the buzz surrounding Alaskapox has hindered tourism in the Last Frontier.
The Alaska Travel Industry Association reported that tourism created an economic impact of $5.6 billion in 2022. As of early January, ATIA President Jillian Simpson told Alaska Public Media that her organization was still processing 2023 data, but she projected the post-pandemic upward trend had continued.