31st July 2023

Taxonomic classification

Taxonomy is one system by which viruses are classified. Viruses are grouped into families, and then each family is broken down into genuses. For example, rabies is caused by the rabies viruses belonging to the Lyssavirus genus in the Rhabdoviridae family.

Some families of viruses have multiple members, which can cause human infection. An example is the Coronaviridae family. Before the advent of COVID-19, little attention was paid to this family in medicine. However, COVID-19 is actually one of 7 distinct coronaviruses of clinical significance. These are SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, NL63, HKU1, OC43 and 229E – with the latter 4 typically causing no more concern than the common cold.