The world is still battling with the Omicron threat and now the France scientist has discovered a new variant named IHU, the B.1.640.2 variant, and it contains 46 mutations even more than Omicron, said researchers. And so far 12 cases have also been reported near Marseilles, which are linked to African country Cameroon travelers. While the Omicron variant is still dominating other countries, the IHU variant is also spreading rapidly amongst the people.
The WHO says this variant is yet to report in other countries and it is labeled under investigation. According to a paper posted on medRxiv, genomes were obtained by next-generation sequencing with Oxford Nanopore Technologies on GridION instruments.“Fourteen amino acid substitutions, including N501Y and E484K, and 9 deletions are located in the spike protein. This genotype pattern led to creating a new Pangolin lineage named B.1.640.2, which is a phylogenetic sister group to the old B.1.640 lineage renamed B.1.640.1,” said the research.
Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding also reported about this variant on Twitter said, the variant has high mutation power but it does not mean it is more dangerous “What makes a variant more well-known and dangerous is its ability to multiply because of the number of mutations it has in relation to the original virus,” he said.