According to researchers who recovered almost two dozen viruses, including one buried under a lake more than 48,500 years ago, the thawing of old permafrost due to climate change may represent a new threat to humanity.
Researchers from Europe examined old samples retrieved from permafrost in Russia’s Siberia region. They resurrected and classified 13 novel infections, dubbed “zombie viruses,” and discovered that they remained contagious despite spending millennia frozen on the earth.
The melting of permafrost brought on by air warming has long been predicted to accelerate climate change by releasing greenhouse gases like methane that were previously trapped. However, its impact on latent pathogens is less clear.
The biological danger of reanimating the viruses investigated, according to the team of researchers from Russia, Germany, and France, was “absolutely insignificant” owing to the strains they targeted, mostly those capable of infecting amoeba microorganisms. The possible resurgence of a virus that may infect animals or people is significantly more serious, they warned, adding that their findings can be extended to demonstrate the threat is genuine.
 "Scientists have resurrected a 'zombie virus' that has been frozen in a Siberian lake for more than 48,500 years. 4")
But they said that as a result of global warming, the risk would inevitably rise as permafrost thawing would continue to speed up and more people would move to the Arctic as a result of industrial endeavors.
