New Delhi: As a world wrestling with an Omicron variant which is very mutated from SARS-COV-2, scientists have identified a new type of Covid-19 which caused a virus in South France.
Known as ‘IHU’, variant B.1.640.2 has been reported by researchers at the Institute of IHU Mediterranee infection at least 12 cases, and has been linked to a trip to Cameroon African countries.
However, the researchers noted that it was too early to speculate about how this variant behaved as far as the infection and protection of the vaccine was concerned.
No-reviewed peer studies were posted on the Prefrint Medrxiv repository on December 29, revealing that IHU had 46 mutations and 37 removal of producing 30 amino acid substitutions and 12 deletions.
Amino acids are molecules that combine to form proteins, and both are building blocks of life.
Fourteen substitutions of amino acids, including N501Y and E484K, and nine deletions are located in a surge in protein.
The most current vaccine is used targeted at the SARS-COV-2 surge protein, which viruses to enter and infect cells.
The previous N501Y and E484K mutations were also found in beta, gamma, theta and omicron variants.
“The set of mutations and the genome phylogenetic position obtained here shows based on our previous definition of our new variant named IHU,” said the writer of this study.
“This data is another example of the uncertainty of the emergence of the SARS-COV-2 variant, and their introduction in certain geographical areas from abroad,” he added.
B.1.640.2 has not been identified in other countries so far or labeled variants that are being investigated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the researchers, the index case (first) was an adult diagnosed positively by RTPCR conducted in the laboratory in nasopharyngeal samples collected in mid-November last year.
Eric epidemiologist Eric Feigl-ding posted a long Twitter thread where he said that the new variant continued to appear but that did not mean they would be more dangerous.
“What makes a more famous and dangerous variant is its ability to breed because of the number of mutations it has in relation to the original virus,” Feigl-ding tweeted on Tuesday.
“This is when it becomes a” variant of concern “- like Omicron, which is more contagious and the immunity first evases.
It is still seen in this new category the new variant will fall,” he said.
Many countries currently experience a surge in Covid-19 cases driven by Omicron variants who were first identified in South Africa and Botswana in November last year.
Since then, the variant of concern has spread to more than 100 countries.
In India, a total of 1,892 cases of omicron variants have been detected in 23 states and the United States so far.