‘Zombie Virus’ Revived By Scientists
48,500 Year Old ‘Zombie Virus’ Revived By Scientists. Researchers that recovered nearly two dozen viruses. It includes one that was frozen under a lake more than 48,500 years ago. It is believed that the thawing of ancient permafrost caused by climate change may provide a new threat to people. Researchers from Europe analysed prehistoric samples taken from permafrost in Russia’s Siberia. They discovered that 13 new diseases, which they resurrected and classified as “zombie viruses.” It continued to be contagious despite spending many ages frozen in the earth.
The thawing of permafrost brought on by atmospheric warming has long been predicted by scientists. To accelerate climate change by releasing methane and other previously contained greenhouse gases. Less is known about its impact on latent infections. 48,500 Year Old ‘Zombie Virus’ Revived By Scientists…
Biological Risk
The team of researchers from Russia, Germany, and France said the biological risk of reanimating the viruses they studied was “totally negligible.” It is due to the strains they targeted, mainly those capable of infecting amoeba microbes. The potential revival of a virus that could infect animals or humans is much more problematic, they said. They also warned that their work can be extrapolated to show the danger is real.
“It is thus likely that ancient permafrost will release these unknown viruses upon thawing,” they wrote in an article posted to the preprint repository bioRxiv that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. “How long these viruses could remain infectious once exposed to outdoor conditions, and how likely they will be to encounter and infect a suitable host in the interval, is yet impossible to estimate.”
“But the risk is bound to increase in the context of global warming when permafrost thawing will keep accelerating, and more people will be populating the Arctic in the wake of industrial ventures,” they said.
