Representative image of scientist working on a virus.
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Scientists in Siberia have warned against a new pandemic threat—Methusealah microbes—colloquially known as 'zombie' viruses.
These ancient viruses are frozen in the Arctic permafrost, but researchers fear that the warming climate and its effects on the the permafrost cover could one day release these viruses, thereby sparking a catastrophic disease outbreak.
To help keep tabs on the situation, a plan for an Arctic monitoring network by scientists is being made to detect early instances of diseases caused by the microbes, which will help prevent the spread of an outbreak, if any, beyond the Arctic regions.
Geneticist Jean-Michel Claverie of Aix-Marseille University told The Guardian, "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", he added.
Virologist Marion Koopmans of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam emphasised the unpredictability of these zombie viruses. "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," he said.
A scientific expedition led by Claverie in 2014 unveiled live viruses in Siberia, showcasing their resilience even after millennia in permafrost. Recent research further revealed the existence of diverse viral strains across seven Siberian sites, capable of infecting cultured cells.
Claverie clarifies that while the isolated viruses pose no risk to humans, the genomic traces of known human pathogens like poxviruses and herpesviruses have been identified in permafrost.
Permafrost covers a fifth of the northern hemisphere. It is made up of soil that has been kept at temperatures below zero for long periods and some layers have remained frozen for hundreds of thousands of years.
The immediate threat, according to Claverie, arises not solely from melting permafrost but from the impact of vanishing Arctic sea ice. “Huge mining operations are being planned. Those operations will release vast amounts of pathogens that still thrive there. Miners will walk in and breath the viruses. The effects could be calamitous", he warned.
Koopmans, meanwhile, stressed on the history of epidemic outbreaks, highlighting factors reponsible. "If you look at the history of epidemic outbreaks, one of the key drivers has been change in land use. Nipah virus was spread by fruit bats who were driven from their habitats by humans. Similarly, monkeypox has been linked to the spread of urbanisation in Africa. A complete change in land use could be dangerous, as we have seen elsewhere," he told The Guardian.
Scientists believe that permafrost, at its deepest levels, may contain viruses that are far older than our own species, which is thought to have emerged about 300,000 years ago.
Claverie and others are working with the University of the Arctic on plans to establish quarantine facilities and provide medical expertise that could pinpoint early cases and treat them locally to try to contain the infection.
"We now face a tangible threat and we need to be prepared to deal with it. It is as simple as that," Claverie said unambiguously.