France has found a new variant of IHU, but WHO says it doesn't have to worry too much

As the highly transmissible Aurmiqueron gradually replaces Delta as the main strain of the new coronavirus, another newly discovered variant of the virus has aroused widespread concern and concern. The strain, numbered B.1.640.2, contained 46 mutation points and 37 deletions and was named IHU.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was looking at the newly discovered variant of the virus, but there was no reason to worry about its spread at this time.

The variant was first detected in France in October last year and uploaded to the Variant Strain Database Gisaid on November 4. Experts said this week that only 20 samples have been sequenced so far, and only 1 sample has been sequenced since early December.

Who's head of COVID-19, Abdi Mahmud, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the variant has been on the agency's radar since last November, but it doesn't appear to have spread widely in the past two months. "There were many opportunities for this virus to spread," Mahmoud said.

By comparison, the Omilon variant, first uploaded to Gisaid on Nov. 23, already has 120,000 sequences in the database, although the vast majority of Omilon cases have not yet been sequenced. According to the WHO, Omikeron has been identified in at least 128 countries or regions and has led to record case counts in many areas.

The reason for the concern about the newly discovered strain in France is that it contains 46 mutations that are different from the original strain of the new crown. Omi kerong also contains a large number of mutations, which researchers believe makes it easier to spread.

According to a research paper published on the preprinted paper website in late December but not yet peer-reviewed, the B.1.640.2 strain was first detected in southeastern France in a person who had traveled to Cameroon, Africa, who had been vaccinated. The researchers found a total of 12 cases in the area and named the variant IHU.

The researchers note that it is too early to speculate on the virology, epidemiology, or clinical features of IHU based solely on these 12 variant cases.

There have been many variants of covid-19 in the past two years, and the reasons why some of them have spread on a large scale and others that have not spread widely are very complex. Multiple independent researchers currently say there is no reason to worry about IHU variants.

Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding tweeted that new variants keep popping up, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're more dangerous. As far as the timeline is concerned, the IHU variant appears almost the same time as The Omilon, and may even predate the Omilon, so there is no need to worry too much.