New

Naming system for virus variants

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) would unveil a system of naming of coronavirus variants drawn from the way tropical cyclones and hurricanes are named.
  • The new naming system is so as not to stigmatise and deincentivise countries from making their sequencing results public. It will also be easier for the lay public to remember rather than complicated lineage numbers.
  • The WTO and health and science agencies across the world refer to viruses and their variants by formal lineage names, which are a combination of letters and names that point to the relationship between different variants.
  • However, because virus names and their associated diseases have frequently been named after geographical places where outbreaks were first reported or samples first isolated- such as the West Nile virus or Ebola.
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