Zombie Virus: What's this new finding and the fuss around it?
With Scientists unearthing a 48,000-year-old now being called ‘zombie virus’ from the permafrost region of Siberia, Russia, news and social media are abuzz with reactions
This zombie virus had buried under a frozen lake in Russia, and it was unearthed by scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Researchers.
Scientists found over a dozen of archaic viruses from the Siberian permafrost and the oldest of them, dubbed as Pandoravirus yedoma, is known to be 48,500 years old.
Although there is no known threat as of present, scientists have found that these viruses remain infectious despite being dormant for hundreds of millennia.
Their results could, "be extrapolated to many other DNA viruses capable of infecting humans or animals", the Scientists noted
How long these viruses could remain infectious once exposed to outdoor conditions and how likely they will be to encounter and infect a suitable host in the interval, is yet impossible to estimate.
Permafrost, or permanently frozen soil, is mostly found in Alaska, Canada, and Siberia, and covers about a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, but areas are thawing as the climate warms.
It is thus likely that ancient permafrost … will release these unknown viruses upon thawing, the scientists noted