Is IHU a new variant? All you need to know about B.1.640.2

As the Omicron variant continues to affect people’s lives and hamstring global economies, France has reported an all-new coronavirus variant – IHU or B.1.640.2. The European country has identified 12 cases of the variant so far. “For twelve SARS-CoV-positive patients living in the same geographical area of southeastern France, qPCR testing that screen for variant-associated mutations showed an atypical combination,” IHU Mediterranee Infection’s Professor Philippe Colson said.
 
However, “it is too early to speculate on virological, epidemiological or clinical features of this IHU variant based on these 12 cases,” he further said.
 
Here’s what you need to know about the new ‘IHU’ variant of coronavirus

• The ‘IHU’ variant of COVID-19, also known as B.1.640.2, was first reported by researchers at the institute IHU Meditarranee Infection.
• At least 12 patients have been diagnosed with this mutation in Southern France.
• The first positive case of the IHU variant was diagnosed in an adult via an RT-PCR test performed in a laboratory on a nasal sample collected in mid-November last year.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not yet commented on the IHU variant as it continues to raise concerns over the Omicron variant.
• The global health body has not yet identified the B.1.640.2 variant in other countries so far or labeled it as a variant under investigation.
• Details about this variant have been published in a yet-to-be-peer reviewed MedRxiv paper. As per this paper, IHU has 46 mutations and 37 deletions resulting in 30 amino acid substitutions and 12 deletions.
• “We indeed have several cases of this new variant in the Marseille geographic area,” Professor Philippe Colson, one of the authors of the preprint paper was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.
• According to epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, the new B.1.640.2 variant can be shortcut identified using a careful PCR analysis of signals different from Delta and Omicron variants.
• Ding further explained this is good as shortcut tests are much faster when compared to the whole genome sequencing.

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