2024-01-22 10:26:57
According to experts, permafrost soils pose a high risk of pathogens. So far, however, the danger posed by ancient viruses has been largely ignored.
The permafrost still retains some ice, but it is steadily melting as a result of global warming. This not only releases climate-damaging greenhouse gases – viruses and bacteria can also be reactivated.
In 2014 and 2015, researchers led by the French scientist Jean-Michel Claverie succeeded in identifying these so-called “zombie viruses”. preserved by permafrost for thousands of years were to be revived. During their study, the researchers pointed out corresponding dangers. Utopia reported.
Potential for a new pandemic?
Geneticist Claverie is now warning once more that pathogens are probably still present in the permafrost soils of Siberia are capable of infecting people. Claverie also sees this as the potential for a new pandemic, as the Guardian writes.
According to the scientist, the danger from the far north has so far been largely ignored. “That’s a failure in my opinion,” Claverie said.
Permafrost is layers of ice, some of which have existed since the last ice age – which ended around 12,000 years ago. Permafrost areas are located in Canada, Alaska, Siberia, but also in high mountains and plains such as Tibet. They are among the regions most affected by global warming. And they serve as a kind of freezer for viruses.
Virologist: “There is a real risk”
In 2014, Claverie and his colleagues demonstrated that viruses from Siberia might infect amoebas. For one of the viruses, the researchers estimate that it is around 50,000 years in ice might have survived.
Virologist Marion Koopmans from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam also emphasizes the possible danger of permafrost. “We don’t know what viruses are out there in the permafrost, but I think there is a real risk that there is one that is capable of causing a disease outbreak – for example old form of polio“, the Guardian quotes the expert.
That’s precisely why it’s important to prepare for it.
Those: Guardian
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