COVID-19 IHU Variant Infects 12 People in France; Found With More Mutations Than Omicron

Amidst the public health concern over the new omicron variant, a new type of COVID-19 emerges in France. The bad news about this separate coronavirus threat is that it has more mutations than Omicron. According to the update from the country's health authority, 12 individuals were already identified with an infection of the new variant. The first patient of Omicron's successor was also known to have been vaccinated with full dosage.

IHU Variant Detected in France

In a new study, experts from France confirmed that a new COVID-19 variant manifested in the country. The information from this new type of coronavirus surfaced amidst the rise of omicron cases around the globe. The variant is said to have a whopping 46 mutations, which far exceeds Omicron and makes its transmission more infectious than all of the previous variants combined.

Among the general population of France, 12 people had been the first victims of the new variant. Most of the patients are located in southeastern France, all affected with the 'ihu' or B.1.640.2 variant.

According to a report by AL.com, the research that uncovered the identity of the IHU variant specified at least 46 mutations that have not been recorded to appear in the COVID-19 cases of other countries. These mutations are unfamiliar and so new that even the World Health Organization has not included them yet in the list of mutations to be investigated.

According to Arab News, the scholars who led the examination said that the new variant has three subsequent mutations found in their spike genes. All of these mutations were analyzed and did not respond to the pattern of the previous SARS-CoV-2 infections brought by the delta variant.

Although it poses a potentially high transmission over Omicron, the IHU variant will be examined further to determine how powerful its transmission could be compared to the previous variants that the countries have already experienced.

Will the IHU Variant Be Stronger Than Previous COVID-19 Variants?

Federation of American Scientists fellow and epidemiology expert Eric Feigl-Ding said in the social media platform Twitter that many variants have been detected alongside the major ones that we are familiar with today, but not all of these detected variants become 'variants of concern.'

Feigl-Ding explained that although new variants are seemingly unstoppable in emerging, they are not automatically considered far more dangerous than the previous scores. In addition, the highly-prevalent omicron variant may have already contained the most intense transmission that may no longer leave any spot for other stronger variants that will follow.

A strong variant presents a unique threat because of its ability to multiply through the mutations it has developed from the original virus strain. Feigl-Ding said that the issue would be treated as a variant of concern when this series happens. The perfect example is the recent Omicron variant, which was more contagious and was detected with a high immunity evasion.

The study was published in the journal medRxiv, titled "Emergence in Southern France of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant of probably Cameroonian origin harbouring both substitutions N501Y and E484K in the spike protein."

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