Scientists warn that Arctic zombie viruses in Siberia could trigger a new terrible pandemic. The threat of an outbreak of microbes that have been in the permafrost for thousands of years has increased due to the intensification of Siberian shipping. About this said in the material of The Guardian.
Humanity is faced with a strange new pandemic threat, scientists warn. They say that ancient viruses frozen in the permafrost of the Arctic could one day be released by warming Earth's climate and trigger a major disease outbreak.
Strains of these Methuselah microbes—or, as they are also called, "zombie viruses"—have already been described by researchers. Scientists have expressed fears that a new global emergency may not be caused by a disease new to science, but by an ailment from the distant past.
The threat of "zombie viruses": what scientists say
Scientists have begun planning an Arctic monitoring network that would detect early cases of disease caused by ancient microorganisms. In addition, it would provide quarantine and skilled medical care for infected people to contain the outbreak and prevent infected people from leaving the region.
"The current analysis of pandemic threats focuses on diseases that may arise in southern regions and then spread to the north. Instead, little attention has been paid to an outbreak that could start in the far north and then spread south. This, in my opinion, is a failure, because there are viruses there that can infect people and cause a new outbreak of the disease." noted the French geneticist Jean-Michel Clavery.
This thesis was supported by virologist Marion Koopmans from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam.
“We don't know what viruses are out there in the permafrost, but I think there's a real risk that there might be one that could trigger an outbreak of a disease—say, an ancient form of polio. We have to assume that something like this can happen." she said.
In 2014, Clavery led a team of scientists who isolated live viruses in Siberia and showed that they can still infect single-celled organisms, even though they have been buried in permafrost for thousands of years. Further research, published in 2023, showed the existence of several different virus strains from seven different locations in Siberia, and that they could infect cultured cells. The age of one sample of the virus was 48 years.
"The viruses we have isolated are capable of infecting only amoeba and do not pose a danger to humans," Clavery said.
However, in his opinion, this does not mean that other viruses that are currently in permafrost cannot cause disease in humans.
"For example, we have identified genomic traces of poxviruses and herpesviruses, which are well-known human pathogens," he added.
Permafrost is the home of viruses
Permafrost covers one-fifth of the northern hemisphere and consists of soil that has been kept at sub-zero temperatures for a long time. Scientists discovered that some layers remained frozen for hundreds of thousands of years.
"Crucially, permafrost is cold, dark and devoid of oxygen, which is ideal for preserving biological material. You can put yogurt in permafrost and it will still be good for 50 years.” Clavery said.
But the permafrost in the world is changing. The top layers of the planet's main reserves—in Canada, Siberia and Alaska—are melting as climate change disproportionately affects the Arctic. According to meteorologists, the region is warming several times faster than the average growth rate of global warming.
However, the most immediate risk is not permafrost melting directly, Clavery added.
"The danger comes from another effect of global warming: the disappearance of Arctic sea ice. This allows for increased shipping, transportation and industrial development in Siberia. Large-scale mining operations are planned, which are going to plug huge holes in the deep permafrost to extract oil and ore. These operations will release a huge number of pathogens that are still circulating there. Miners will breathe viruses. Therefore, we expect disastrous consequences," — said the scientist.
According to the specialist, one of the key factors in the history of outbreaks of epidemics is changes in land use.
"The Nipah virus was spread by bats that were driven out of their habitat by humans. Likewise, monkeypox has been linked to the spread of urbanization in Africa.
And this is what we will soon see in the Arctic: a complete change in land use could trigger a new outbreak.” emphasized Marion Koopmans.
Scientists believe that permafrost at its deepest level may contain viruses that are up to a million years old.
For this reason, Clavery and other scientists are working on plans to create quarantine facilities and medical examiners that could pinpoint early cases of disease and treat them on the spot to contain the spread of infection.
"We are now facing a tangible threat and must be prepared to deal with it." - summarized Clavery.
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