According to reports in the media, ancient zombie viruses could be released by thawing permafrost in the Arctic, leading to a dire worldwide health emergency. Concerned geneticist Jean-Michel Claverie, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Genomics at Aix-Marseille University, warned, "We now face a tangible threat and we need to be prepared to deal with it. It is as simple as that."
In order to uncover occurrences of diseases caused by the ancient microorganisms before their spread gets out of hand, experts at the University of the Arctic, an international cooperation for education and research, are striving to set up a monitoring network. Along with providing medical care and quarantine facilities for affected individuals, it would also assist decrease the possibility of an outbreak by keeping infected people from traveling outside the area.
Roughly 20 percent of the northern hemisphere of Earth is covered in frozen soil, where Methuselah bacteria, sometimes referred to as "zombie viruses," are said to be able to survive for tens of thousands of years. Also, researchers and medical professionals think viruses that may have once lived on Earth a million years ago may still be preserved in the lowest permafrost layers. It was a long time before the earliest known people, who lived about 300,000 years ago, appeared on the earth. Therefore, there is no inherent defense against the ancient viral invaders in modern people.
According to Jean-Michel Claverie, "Our immune systems may have never been in contact with some of those microbes, and that is another worry." He continued, "The scenario of an unknown virus once infecting a Neanderthal coming back at us, although unlikely, has become a real possibility." Viruses known as "zombie viruses" are those that can survive in frozen soil for tens of thousands of years; this region makes up roughly 20% of the northern hemisphere of the Earth. They have the ability to propagate illness, and contemporary people are naturally immune to these ancient viral invaders.
A million years ago, viruses could have lived on Earth and are now being preserved in the lowest depths of permafrost. It was a long time before the earliest known people, who lived about 300,000 years ago, appeared on the earth. Therefore, there is no inherent defense against the ancient viral invaders in modern people.
