Covid-19: France Scientists Detects new highly mutated variant ‘IHU B.1.640.2’
New Delhi: Scientists from France have detected the new variant of the covid-19, called ‘IHU’ – Which is a much more mutated strain. The researchers detected the new variant said that “the new variant becomes more resistant to vaccines and infectious.”
According to a media report, at least 12 cases of the new variant have been reported near Marseilles. They had travel history to the African country Cameroon.
However, the omicron variant is still reported to be the dominant strain in most parts of the world. A New variant detected in France is not recorded in other countries yet.
IHU, as it’s been dubbed, has the N501Y mutation also found in the Alpha, Beta, Omicron, and Gamma variants, which makes it more infectious, and the E484K mutation found in Gamma and Beta, which helps the virus evade people’s immunity., as well as numerous other changes.
The World Health Organization has yet to declare it a variant of interest or concern or give it a Greek letter name. At the time the scientists’ paper was published, there had been just 12 cases found.
“It is too early to speculate on virological, epidemiological or clinical features of this IHU variant based on these 12 cases,” the scientists said, calling it “another example of the unpredictability of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants”.
