Why don't scientists assign names to viruses?

Answer 1

Viruses have a different classification compared to other classical organisms.

Viruses are first divided into genotype: double stranded/single stranded DNA, double/single stranded RNA, +ve/-ve strand RNA, reverse transcription. Next, is the virus enveloped or not enveloped.

Once you get pass that, you put the viruses into families, called X-viridae. For example, influenza is in the orthomyxoviridae, measles is in paramysxoviridae, Hepatitis B virus is in hepadnaviridae.

Once seperated into families, some virus families are further seperated into sub-families, ending with virinae (i think i might be wrong on this one). And then you get the actual virus. For example, Influenza virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV, not HIV virus).

From here, viruses can be seperated into clades, based on genotype similarities and geographical distribution, for example HIV has Clade A-M (or more than M). Or in the case of flu, you get different subtypes and strains. For example, Influenza A H3N1 (subtype) strain PR8. Typically in influenza you get a classification such as "A/98/PR8/H3N2/Beijing" where the 98 = year it was isolated, and the final is the place where it was isolated from.

Answer 2

Some viruses have different strains, or variations of the original virus. Their names (as in words or letters mixed with number) can reflect what type of cells they attach to or what enzymes they utilize to take over a cell. For example, the bird flu H5N1. H stands for Hemagglutinins, meaning that it attaches to red blood cells. There could also be an H5N2 or H5N3 if there were similar flus, but attached to different types of cells or enzymes.

Answer 3

Viruses have names, but not binomial nomenclature type names. Those names are reserved for living things. Science has not agreed that viruses are living.

Answer 4

I assume you mean the scientific name, not colloquial names such as Ebola, Herpes, etc...

For categorization purposes. You can have an great combination of numbers and letters than specific names, plus the numbers/letters probably stand for some type of categorization system.

Answer 5

They do. It is a code name, but it is a name nonetheless.
The code describes some key characteristics of the virus strain, like its ancestry. Example the H5N1 that is causing the avian flu.

Answer 6

many viruses have names.

Answer 7

they do. they have a common name, like HIV...and then they have strain names to get even more specific =)