Dikhyaa Mohanty The new Covid-19 variant called B.1.640, which was detected by French researchers is not circulating widely at the moment and has so far been identified in less than 1 per cent of the samples sequenced in France,
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the virus is probably of Cameroonian origin and is also known as the ‘IHU’ variant because it was first identified by academics at the IHU Mediterranee Infection institute in Marseille, France.
Maria van Kerkhove, technical lead for the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, stated that the variant was first detected in September 2021 in a number of countries. Since the B.1.640 variant has many mutations, the WHO classified it as a VUM is to raise the public’s awareness
A VUM is SARS-CoV-2 variant with genetic changes that are suspected to affect virus characteristics, which may pose a future risk, but evidence of phenotypic or epidemiological impact is currently unclear, thus requiring enhanced monitoring and repeat assessment pending new evidence.
Katherine O’Brien, director of the WHO’s Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department stated that B.1.640 is not a variant that is increasing in prevalence but is a small fraction of the strains that are circulating.
