Naming Covid variants after place of origin ‘stigmatises’ countries, says WHO

New variants of Covid-19 should not be named after the location where they are first identified to avoid “stigmatising” countries or places, experts at the World Health Organisation (WHO) have said.

WHO scientists are developing new names for variants, which are often colloquially named after the places where they were first detected. For example, the B.1.1.7 variant is widely referred to as the “Kent variant” in the UK and the “UK variant” around the rest of the world.

But the WHO urged the importance of countries conducting virus surveillance and genome sequencing to discover new variants without fear of being stigmatised for doing so.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the body’s technical lead for Covid-19, said it was working on creating names for virus variants. The process of devising or creating names for things is known as a nomenclature.

“We continue to see people named the variants ‘country X variant’ or ‘country Y variant’, and we have been working hard on developing a nomenclature, with a large group of scientists around the world,” she told a press briefing.

“We hope to be able to announce the nomenclature very soon, because we need to make sure that any of the names that are used do not further stigmatise a person, or a last name, or a location inadvertently, and so we’re still working on that.

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“But we do hope that countries and scientists do not say ‘the South African variant’.”

She added: “The more you look, the more you will find, and with the increases in genomic sequencing that are happening worldwide, there are a lot of regional platforms that are being enhanced to make sure that we can find different mutations and different virus variants.

“There are a lot of research groups that are out there that are studying each of these mutations, and the combinations of mutations, to determine if there are any changes in transmissibility and severity, and any potential impact on our available and future diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

“So it is really important that we do have names of these virus variants.

“Right now what we’re using is: the B.1.1.7 - the virus variant first identified in the United Kingdom; the B.1.351 - the virus variant that was first identified in South Africa; and the P1, which is the virus variant that was first detected in Japan, but is circulating in Brazil.

“But there should be no stigma associated with these viruses being detected. And unfortunately we still see that happening.

“Countries that are conducting surveillance that are carrying out sequencing, that are sharing those sequences on publicly available platforms, that are working with WHO and scientists around the world, should not be stigmatised for sharing this information.

“In fact, we need more of this to be happening worldwide, and we will continue to work with partners to ensure that that that happens.”

The WHO warned against naming diseases after the place they were first discovered and gave Covid-19 its name to de-stigmatise the virus’ association with the city of Wuhan.

When announcing the official name of Covid-19 in February last year, WHO’s director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatising. It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks.