New variant after Omicron: 'IHU' discovered by French scientists, may be more contagious

Even as the world is battling with a resurgence in Covid cases caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, a new strain of the Sars-Cov-2 virus has been discovered by scientists in France.

Named IHU, the B.1.640.2 variant was discovered by academics at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection. Researchers say that it contains 46 mutations – even more than Omicron – which may make it more resistant to vaccines.

At least 12 cases of the new variant have been reported near Marseilles, and have been linked to travel to the African country of Cameroon.

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However, the Omicron variant is still the dominant strain in most parts of the world.

The B.1.640.2 has not been spotted in other countries or labelled a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization yet.

According to a paper posted on medRxiv, the 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 the creation of 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,” the research paper said.

Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding posted a long Twitter thread in which he said that new variants keep emerging but it does not necessarily mean they will be 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.

“This is when it becomes a "variant of concern" - like Omicron, which is more contagious and more passive. It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall,” the doctor further said.

The Omicron variant was detected in a sample taken from South Africa on November 24 last year. Since then, it has spread to more than 100 countries. In India, it has infected nearly 1,900 people.

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