Extremely eye news reporter Zhang Yang
Deutsche Welle's website reported on January 4 that a hospital in Marseille, France, discovered a new variant of the new coronavirus in early December last year in a traveler returning to France from Cameroon, temporarily named "IHU". According to a study supported by the French government that has not yet been peer-reviewed, the new variant has infected 12 people in the country, all from cameroonian tourist returnees.
This new mutant has 46 mutations in the "atypical combination", which is more than the mutation of Omi kerong, which has 37 mutations.
According to the study, the first patient was a vaccinated adult who returned to France after traveling from Cameroon in central Africa. Three days after his return, he developed mild respiratory symptoms.
Coulson, an infectious disease scientist, said the virus samples collected from the patient were consistent with the nasopharynx samples he collected in mid-November 2021, revealing a new atypical combination that did not match the pattern of almost all Delta variants at the time.
He also found the same combination of mutations from respiratory samples collected from 7 other COVID-19-positive patients living in the same area. They are two adults and five children (under 15 years old).
On the recommendation of the French public health authorities, respiratory samples from the eight patients were sent to the Institute of Hospital Infections of the University of the Mediterranean for genome sequencing of the new coronavirus.
Further test analysis revealed that the new variant had 46 mutations and 37 deletions. There are 14 amino acid substitutions in the spike protein, including two known spike protein mutations N501Y and E484K.
The N501Y mutation binds the pathogen more closely to human cells, making it easier to spread in the body; E484K is one of the escape mutations located directly in the spike protein, so it may reduce the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Although there are more mutations in the new variant than Omilon, whether it is really more contagious than Omilon cannot be judged at this time, as there are very few available data and cases. At this time, WHO has not responded to this matter.
The origin of this new variant is also unclear for the time being. Although the first discovery was now detected in people returning from Cameroon, it does not mean that the place of origin is the country.
However, extremely low vaccination rates do favor the emergence of covid-19 mutations. According to Johns Hopkins University in the United States, only 2.4% of the population in Cameroon has been vaccinated.
Therefore, as long as the vaccination campaign is not promoted globally, new variants will continue to emerge. Sometimes they are more harmless, sometimes more dangerous, and it remains to be seen how harmful this new variant will be.