This post is all about the zombie virus Found in Siberia, Russia. We will look at whether these viruses are infectious and if they can affect humans.
You may have heard about the hazardous effects of global warming on us and the earth like increased draughts, rising sea level, etc. but one mostly ignored effect is the revival of long-trapped infectious viruses.
The recent discovery of nearly two dozen viruses has made researchers warn the world again that global warming can lead to the revival of long-trapped disastrous viruses. They have long been saying that rapidly melting permafrosts may pose a new threat to us.
More About The Zombie Virus Found in Siberia
The researcher’s team who discovered these viruses in the Siberia region of Russia said that one of these viruses is nearly 48,500 years old and is now named pandoravirus. Previously, the record of the oldest virus was 30,000 years old which was found in the year 2013.
The researchers have exactly found 13 viruses. The researchers also found that these viruses remained contagious even after being trapped for millennia in these permafrosts. These viruses are found by the same team of European researchers who found the previous oldest virus in 2013.
“Zombie Virus” remained frozen for nearly 48,500 years beneath a lake. Other viruses discovered by the researchers are found in mammoth wool and the intestinal contents of a petrified wolf trapped in permafrost, among other samples. Other viruses are considered to be tens of thousands of years old as well.
Can Zombie Virus In Siberia Affect Humans?
As Clyde Schultz, Ph.D., a biology professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, noted in a 2019 research article that these viruses are not known to infect humans.
Although these viruses may not make you sick.
Though these viruses will not make humans sick, scientists believe their findings may be generalized to other viruses capable of infecting humans or animals. Their article states that it is “probable” that permafrost, which will eventually be far older than 50,000 years, may release undiscovered viruses upon thawing.
“It is hard to predict how long these viruses will remain infectious once exposed to outside circumstances (UV light, oxygen, heat), and how likely they will be to contact and infect a suitable host throughout the interval,” the scientists stated. “However, the risk is certain to rise in the context of global warming, as permafrost thawing accelerates and more people move to the Arctic as a result of industrial initiatives.”