Ancient zombie viruses may trigger new pandemic

London: A warming Earth and increase in human activity like shipping, mining may soon release ancient zombie viruses trapped in permafrost in Siberia, triggering a new pandemic, warns a study.

Known for years as 'Methuselah microbes', the viruses have stayed dormant in permafrost for tens of thousands of years, but carry the risk of propagating and spreading diseases.

With 2023 being the warmest year on record, the risk of permafrost thawing and eventually releasing the zombie viruses is higher than ever, said researchers from the Aix-Marseille University in the south of France.

“At the moment, analyses of pandemic threats focus on diseases that might emerge in southern regions and then spread north,” said geneticist Jean-Michel Claverie, a geneticist from the varsity, was quoted as saying to the Guardian.

“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.”

Agreeing to this, virologist Marion Koopmans of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam said: “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 -- say of an ancient form of polio”.