Measles virus nomenclature update: 2012

Overview

The genetic characterization of circulating wild-type viruses is a critical component of measles laboratory surveillance and molecular epidemiological studies. The combination of molecular analysis and standard case investigation provides a sensitive means to describe the transmission pathways of measles virus and to document the interruption of endemic measles transmission. Absence of endemic genotype(s) is one of the criteria for verifying measles elimination in a country or region. A standardized methodology and nomenclature is used to define measles sequences and genotypes. Two global reporting platforms have been developed to collect and analyse sequence data, the WHO Global Measles and the Measles Nucleotide Surveillance (MeaNS) databases.