New Covid variant IHU: This may be more vaccine-resistant and infectious than the original covid virus. According to media reports, Variant IHU has been discovered in France.
Recently, scientists and experts in France have reportedly identified a new variant of COVID-19 ‘IHU’. The new variant is said to have a higher mutational strain than Omicron.
B.1.640.2 or IHU variant was first identified by academics at the Institute IHU Mediterranee Infection and contains 46 mutations, which is more than omicron. About 12 cases of this new variant have been reported near Marseille and it has been linked to the African country of Cameroon. But, the Omicron strain is failing in most parts of the world.
In genome sequencing, a new variant of a corona was found in all these 12 people, in which there were 46 mutations on the spike protein of the virus. On the other hand, there were only 32 mutations in Omicron. In such a situation, experts are estimating this new mutant to spread faster than Omicron.
This new variant could be a major threat, however, as cases have not been reported in countries other than France so far and are not labelled as ‘variant under investigation’ by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Leave a Reply