'Zombie' Virus Which Spent 48,500 Years Frozen In Arctic Could Spark Deadly Pandemic, Warn Scientists

The scientists stated that the melting Arctic permafrost could release the 'zombie viruses' and trigger a catastrophic global health emergency

Scientists have warned about the dangers posed by viruses buried under ice caps in the Arctic and other places. They have stated that the melting Arctic permafrost could release the 'zombie viruses' and trigger a catastrophic global health emergency, as per a report in The Guardian. The threat has increased since rising temperatures due to global warming started melting the frozen ice. To better understand the risks associated with these viruses, a scientist revived some of them from samples taken from Siberian permafrost last year. These viruses have spent thousands of years frozen in the ground.

Geneticist Jean-Michel Claverie of Aix-Marseille University said, "At the moment, analyses of pandemic threats focus on diseases that might emerge in southern regions and then spread north. By contrast, little attention has been given to an outbreak that might emerge in the far north and then travel south - and that is an oversight, I believe. There are viruses up there that have the potential to infect humans and start a new disease outbreak."

Further, scientist Marion Koopmans of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam agreed with the same and added, "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."