A group of global experts convened by the WHO has agreed on new names for monkeypox virus variants, as part of ongoing efforts to align the names of the disease, the virus and the monkeypox variants. monkey with current best practices. The experts agreed to name the clades with Roman numerals.
Monkeypox virus was named after it was first discovered in 1958, before current best practices for naming diseases and viruses were adopted. Likewise for the name of the disease it causes. The main variants were identified by the geographical regions where they were known to circulate.
Current best practice is that newly identified viruses, related diseases and virus variants should be named with the aim of avoiding offending any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic group, and minimizing any negative impact on trade. , travel, tourism or animal welfare.
Disease: The assignment of new names to existing diseases is the responsibility of WHO according to the International Classification of Diseases and the WHO Family of International Health-Related Classifications (WHO-FIC). WHO is conducting an open consultation for a new disease name for monkeypox. Anyone wishing to propose new names can do so here (see ICD-11, Add proposals).
Viruses: The naming of virus species is the responsibility of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), which has a process underway for the naming of monkeypox virus.
Variants/clades: The naming of variants for existing pathogens is usually the result of debate among scientists. In order to expedite the agreement in the context of the current outbreak, the WHO convened an ad hoc meeting on August 8 to allow virologists and public health experts to reach a consensus on the new terminology.
Experts in smallpox virology, evolutionary biology, and representatives of research institutes around the world reviewed the phylogeny and nomenclature of known and new variants or clades of monkeypox virus. They discussed the characteristics and evolution of monkeypox virus variants, their apparent phylogenetic and clinical differences, and potential consequences for public health and future virological and evolutionary research.
The group reached consensus on a new nomenclature for virus clades that conforms to best practice. They agreed on how virus clades should be recorded and classified in genome sequence repository sites.
Consensus was reached to now refer to the ancient clade from the Congo Basin (Central Africa) as Clade one (I) and the ancient West African clade as Clade two (II). Furthermore, it was agreed that Clade II consists of two subclades.
The appropriate naming structure will be represented by a Roman numeral for the clade and a lowercase alphanumeric character for the subclades. Thus, the new naming convention comprises Clade I, Clade IIa, and Clade IIb, with the latter primarily referring to the group of variants that were largely circulating in the 2022 global outbreak. The lineages will be named as proposed by scientists as evolve the outbreak. Experts will be called back as needed.
The new clade names should take effect immediately while work continues on disease and virus names.