As the world is battling an outbreak of the very high transmission Omicron virus, scientists and experts in France have reportedly identified a new variant of COVID-19, dubbed "IHU ". The new variant is considered to be a more mutated strain than Omicron.
According to media reports, about 12 cases of this new variant have been reported near Marseille and have been linked to the African country of Cameroon. But the Omicron strain still dominates most regions of the world.
Variant B.1.640.2 or IHU was first identified by scientists at the IHU Mediterranee Infection Institute and contains 46 mutations, which is more than Omicron.
This new variant may pose a serious threat, but no cases have yet been reported in countries other than France and the World Health Organization (WHO) has not flagged it as a 'study variant'.
According to an article published on medRxiv, the strain carries the E484K mutation, which could make it more resistant to vaccines. It also has the N501Y mutation, first discovered in the Alpha variant, which experts say could make it more transmissible.
According to scientists, “these observations once again show the unpredictability of the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 and their introduction from abroad. And they illustrate the difficulty of controlling such deployment and subsequent distribution. ”
