Scientists are sounding the alarm about potential threats posed by ancient viruses lying dormant under Arctic ice caps. The melting Arctic permafrost, driven by rising global temperatures, could release these ‘zombie viruses,’ potentially triggering a catastrophic global health crisis, according to a report in The Guardian. The risks associated with these viruses gained attention when a geneticist successfully revived some of them from samples taken from Siberian permafrost last year, shedding light on the potential dangers they may pose.
Geneticist Jean-Michel Claverie of Aix-Marseille University highlighted the oversight in pandemic threat analyses, noting that the focus has traditionally been on diseases emerging in southern regions and spreading north. However, the threat of an outbreak originating in the far north and traveling south has been relatively neglected. Claverie explained, “There are viruses up there that have the potential to infect humans and start a new disease outbreak.”
Scientists, including Marion Koopmans of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, share concerns about the unknown viruses lying dormant in the permafrost. Koopmans emphasized, “We don’t know what viruses are lying out there in the permafrost, but I think there is a real risk that there might be one capable of triggering a disease outbreak — say of an ancient form of polio. We have to assume that something like this could happen.”
Despite being frozen for thousands of years, live viruses recovered from Siberian permafrost have demonstrated the ability to infect single-celled organisms. The researchers, led by Claverie, isolated viruses in 2014 that could infect amoebae, and subsequent investigations identified virus strains capable of infecting cultured cells. One such virus sample dated back an astonishing 48,500 years.
Jean-Michel Claverie stated, “The viruses we isolated were only able to infect amoebae and posed no risk to humans. However, that does not mean that other viruses — currently frozen in the permafrost — might not be able to trigger illnesses in humans. We have identified genomic traces of poxviruses and herpesviruses, which are well-known human pathogens, for example.”
The permafrost, covering a fifth of the Northern Hemisphere, has acted as a time capsule, preserving extinct creatures and ancient viruses. As the Arctic region experiences warming at a rate several times faster than the global average, the disappearance of Arctic sea ice is also contributing to increased shipping, traffic, and industrial development in Siberia. This poses a particular threat as large-scale mining operations are planned, potentially releasing vast amounts of pathogens into the environment.
“The danger comes from another global warming impact: the disappearance of Arctic sea ice. That is allowing increases in shipping, traffic, and industrial development in Siberia. Huge mining operations are being planned, and are going to drive vast holes into the deep permafrost to extract oil and ores. Those operations will release vast amounts of pathogens that still thrive there. Miners will walk in and breathe the viruses. The effects could be calamitous,” warned Claverie.
