INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
scientists warn, potentially putting humanity at risk of never-before-seen diseases.Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist and emeritus
Arctic is warming three times faster than the global average, raising concerns regarding permafrost, the continuously frozen soil covering
almost two-thirds of Russia.Scientists have for years warned that melting permafrost will release potent greenhouse gases that set off a
the study of viruses and even visited Siberia to revive pathogens that have laid dormant for thousands of years.In 2014, Claverie and
evolutionary biologist Chantal Abergel successfully isolated a giant 30,000-year-old infectious virus, comparable in size to a small
an international team of researchers confirmed the infectious potential of 13 more viruses after being frozen in deep permafrost for over
48,500 years.Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist and emeritus professor at Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine.Svetlana Pavlova /
in deeper permafrost layers more than 50,000 years old due to technical limitations of reaching them
They suspect that viruses in layers up to 260,000-300,000 years old, which overlaps with the age of Homo sapiens, can still be infectious,
corresponding to the deepest permafrost layers, would be the most dreadful, as they would be both unknown and never encountered by our
Burial sites of smallpox victims were previously discovered in Russia, such as an old cemetery near the village of Pokhodsk in the republic
The real risk, they say, comes not from the accelerated thawing of permafrost itself, but the increasing ease of accessing the Arctic, with
the speed of potential development and the number of workers brought to previously pristine sites as main factors to watch, Claverie
only to frozen viruses but also bacteria, which account for 95% of microorganisms detected in soil samples, Claverie said.In 2016, an
outbreak of anthrax, which is caused by Bacillus anthracis bacteria, resulted in the deaths of thousands of reindeer and one child on the
Yamal Peninsula in far northwest Siberia
Following rapid permafrost thaw in preceding years, a summer heat wave catalyzed the 2016 outbreak, the first documented in the region in 75
laboratory director at North-Eastern Federal University and lead researcher at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, told The Moscow
viral ones, as modern antibiotics effectively treat illnesses such as anthrax, Claverie noted
response to the disastrous 2020 oil spill at a Norilsk Nickel subsidiary, which was linked to rising permafrost temperatures.While the law
is welcomed, it does not specifically mention monitoring viruses and bacteria, Boris Revich, a professor and chief researcher at the Russian
Russian settlements in the Arctic.Revich noted that he does not see a need for such measures, as there is no imminent danger for the Russian
to come back to life, it would not necessarily infect humans, Tananaev said, as not all viruses can survive in and harm multicellular
towns or industrial sites in permafrost regions might not be economically feasible, but Claverie said it would be highly desirable to have
proper local medical facilities for monitoring emerging infectious diseases and for quarantine in order to avoid having to send suspicious
cases to facilities in Moscow, where viruses could potentially spread much further.As for potential consequences for the population, the
virologist pointed to the example of Covid-19, but noted that things could get much worse if the disease awakened happens to be more lethal
