The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
Ancient microbes frozen for thousands of years in Siberia’s permafrost are thawing, researchers have warned – and could pose a ‘disastrous’ threat to the human race.
Virologist Jean-Michel Claverie has warned that as global warming defrosts ice which has remained frozen since tens of thousands of years before the dawn of civilization, ancient viruses could be unleashed.
If an ancient disease killed Neanderthals, for example, their frozen corpses could still harbor infectious viruses, Claverie warns – and melting ice could reveal them.
The viruses have already turned up in mammoth wool, Siberian mummies, prehistoric wolves, and the lungs of an Influenza victim buried in Alaska’s permafrost.
Scientists have highlighted six frozen pathogens they believe pose the biggest threat to humanity.
Frozen, well-preserved viruses have turned up in mammoth wool, Siberian mummies, prehistoric wolves, and the lungs of an Alaskan Influenza victim. Above, the first full carcass of a cave bear, approximately 39500 years old, unearthed from the Yakutia permafrost in 2020
Melting permafrost in Siberia could unleash deadly pathogens
Virologist Jean-Michel Claverie
Claverie told Bloomberg News: With climate change, we are used to thinking of dangers coming from the south.
‘Now, we realize there might be some danger coming from the north as the permafrost thaws and frees microbes, bacteria and viruses.’
The threat of frozen diseases buried in the ice is real: a heat wave in Siberia in 2016 activated deadly anthrax spores which killed a child, along with thousands of reindeer.
Claverie’s team previously revived giant viruses from up to 48,000 years ago – and he has warned that there could be even more ancient viruses in the ice, some of which could potentially infect humans.
Claverie’s team have focused for a decade on giant viruses found frozen in the ice.
These ‘giant viruses’ are a type of pandoravirus which can infect amoebas.
One-quarter of the northern hemisphere sits on top of permanently frozen ground – known as permafrost, but large areas are now melting as the world warms.
Claverie’s team previously revived viruses from before the dawn of civilization (AP)
Previously researchers have warned that global warming and thawing ice might unearth diseases such as smallpox frozen into the corpses of victims, with a few infectious particles enough to revive the pathogen.
The planet is already 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in pre-industrial times, and scientists have warned that the Arctic could see ice-free summers by the 2030s.
Clarverie’s team first revived viruses in 2014, focusing for safety reasons on viruses which could only infect amoebas.
Claverie has since isolated 13 new viruses since 2019, and he warns that an unknown, ancient pathogen could have ‘disastrous’ effects for the human race.
Claverie told Bloomberg, ‘Fifty thousand years back in time takes us to when Neanderthal disappeared from the region.
‘If Neanderthals died of an unknown viral disease and this virus resurfaces, it could be a danger to us.’
e World Health Organization last year launched a global scientific process to consult on ‘Disease X’, an unknown pathogen which could cause an international epidemic.
Former chief medical advisor to the President Anthony Fauci has said that the concept of Disease X will allow researchers to focus on entire classes of viruses rather than individual strains.
Claverie has now said he won’t return to the region, saying that the research carries a risk of accidentally unleashing a new virus.
He said, ‘It would be good to establish a specialized way of following the Inuit population, for example, to see what kind of diseases they get.
‘And if there is something coming from the permafrost, we’ll be able to catch it much more rapidly.’
