Zombie Viruses Unleashed by Rapidly Thawing Permafrost Due to Accelerating Global Warming, Warn Scientists

The Melting Permafrost: A Threat To Our Health

As global warming accelerates, permafrost is rapidly thawing, releasing into the air a host of viruses stuck there since prehistoric times that could become contagious again.

Scientists Warn Of Resurrected “Zombie Viruses”

An international group of scientists in the fields of genomics, microbiology and geosciences from Russia, Germany and France is sounding the alarm that “the risk of preserving the contagiousness of ancient viral particles” has been underestimated.

Climate Change And Melting Ice Sheets Could Cause Diseases From Prehistoric Times To Resurface

Scientists show that climate change and the melting of ice sheets at an alarming rate could cause some diseases that have been trapped in ice since prehistoric times and come from organisms thought to be extinct, namely ancient “zombie viruses” that still exist. ability to provoke infection and spread.

The Findings Of The International Team Of Scientists

The team, which has been tracking resurrected “zombie viruses” for almost a decade, has published their findings in the journal Viruses. Scientists have found that disease particles are still contagious today in the fur of mammoths, Siberian mummies, prehistoric wolves, and even lung flu victims buried in the frozen ground.

Collaboration Amongst Institutions Yields Grim Discovery

Institutions in Russia, Germany, and France have been collaborating on a new study that found “the risk is bound to rise in the context of global warming as permafrost melt continues to accelerate.”

Six Long-Frozen Viruses That Scientists Have Found In The Fossil Record Of Rapidly Thawing Permafrost

Below are six long-frozen viruses that scientists have found in the fossil record of rapidly thawing permafrost.

Flu

Scientists have exhumed the body of an elderly Inuit woman buried in a mass grave of influenza victims near a remote village near the town of Brevig Mission in Alaska. The permafrost has preserved enough influenza virus RNA for scientists to sequence the entire genome of the 1918 influenza virus strain.

Smallpox

According to the UN World Health Organization, smallpox was officially eradicated worldwide in 1980. But in 2004, French and Russian scientists discovered smallpox inside a 300-year-old icy Siberian mummy frozen in the tundra of the Russian republic of Yakutia.

Siberian Pitovirus

The size of the Siberian pitovirus is about 1.5 micrometers, which is seven times the size of modern human pitoviruses, which are typically 20 to 200 nanometers in size.

Wolf Virus (Pacmanvirus Lupus)

The “wolf” virus, an ancient relative of the African swine fever virus, was found dissolved in the intestines of a 27,000-year-old frozen Siberian wolf.

Pandoravirus/Megavirus

Giant mammoth pandoravirus and mammoth megavirus have been found in a 27,000-year-old block of ice and frozen mammoth fur on the banks of the Yana River in Russia. Both, like ancient giant viruses, have been shown to be capable of killing amoebas.

Conclusion

The thawing permafrost is a potential Pandora’s Box for humanity. The release of ancient viruses into the air poses a threat to our health that can no longer be ignored.

Source: Mirror

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