Scientists warn of 'zombie viruses' from Siberia

In the permafrost of the Arctic and Siberia, there may be diseases from the past that will return due to warming, oil drilling, and increased shipping. Viruses have already been found in the region that were infectious after almost 50 thousand years

A new pandemic could arise in the world due to strains of zombie viruses or Methuselah microbes frozen in the Arctic permafrost, they could return due to global warming and melting glaciers, scientists warn , writes The Telegraph.

Researchers call zombie viruses pathogens that were active in the past but are now frozen.

Among the cases of detection of such viruses, scientists included the discovery of a woman’s lung sample on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska in 1997, which contained genomic material of the influenza strain that caused the 1918 pandemic. In 2012, experts found genetic evidence of the virus that causes smallpox in the 300-year-old mummified remains of a woman buried in Siberia. An outbreak of anthrax in Siberia in July-August 2016 was associated with thawing permafrost during an abnormally hot summer, which allowed old Bacillus anthracis spores to emerge from old burial grounds to the surface.

Scientists have begun planning an Arctic monitoring network that will detect early cases of diseases caused by ancient viruses. Experts will create a system of quarantine and qualified medical care for infected people to prevent an outbreak and travel of sick people outside the region.

“To date, pandemic threat analysis has focused on diseases that could emerge in southern regions and then spread to northern regions. In contrast, little attention has been paid to an outbreak that could originate in the far north and then spread south,” said geneticist Jean-Michel Claverie from Aix-Marseille University.

His point of view is supported by virologist Marion Koopmans from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. She noted that scientists don't know about viruses still lurking in the permafrost, but there is a real risk that one of them will trigger an outbreak of a disease, such as an ancient form of polio. The virologist emphasized: “We must assume that something like this could happen.”

A team of scientists in 2014, led by Claverie, isolated live viruses in Siberia and proved that they are still capable of infecting single-celled organisms - after being in permafrost for thousands of years. Further research published last year showed the presence of different viral strains found in seven different locations in Siberia. The age of one virus sample was 48.5 thousand years.

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“The viruses that we isolated were capable of infecting only amoebas and did not pose a risk to humans,” the scientist emphasized. However, he continued, this does not mean that other viruses still in the permafrost cannot cause disease in humans. According to Claverie, the researchers were able to identify genomic traces of poxviruses and herpesviruses, “which, for example, are well-known human pathogens.”

The virologist explained to the Obserber that the most important quality of permafrost is “that it is cold, dark and deprived of oxygen, which is ideal for preserving biological material.” "You can putyogurt into permafrost, and it will still be edible 50 thousand years later,” he pointed out.

However, the greatest risk is not the thawing of permafrost, but the disappearance of Arctic sea ice, which will result in increased industrial development in Siberia, shipping, and the drilling of “huge holes for oil and ore extraction.” “These operations will release huge numbers of pathogens that still thrive there. Miners will come and breathe viruses. The consequences could be catastrophic,” the virologist concluded.

In 2018, WHO included “Disease X” in its list of priority diseases to speed up research into the pathogen, which could potentially lead to a new pandemic. This is an abstract disease caused by a microorganism unknown to mankind, which has the potential to lead to a catastrophic epidemic on an international scale.

According to the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , Anthony Fauci, the “X” in the name means “surprise.” At the same time, Rospotrebnadzor believes that the hype around “disease X” may be based not on scientific, but on economic grounds. The department believes that after the end of the covid-19 pandemic , WHO began to actively promote the idea of ​​a global reform of the global HEALTH care architecture in order to increase its own funding.