Yeah, the headline seems like a sci-fic story. But, yes, it is true.
Scientists have found and revived an unusually large virus from a permanently frozen patch of Siberian soil. Scientists say the virus is about 30,000 years old. A 30,000 year old virus. In present age. Still alive and kicking.
The virus can still infect and cause diseases, just not to us, but to single-celled organisms. So, whatever visions you had about a zombie infection, just forget them. This virus is harmless, at least for us.
The virus’s formal name: pithovirus sibericum.
The scientists surveyed a sample of frozen soil about 100 feet below the surface in Siberia (duh?) and used a sample of amoeba to draw the virus out of it’s slumber. They found out that the Amoeba had died.
There are now a total of 3 known giant virus families ( Including this one )
The mere discovery of this virus shakes the foundations of the concept of ‘virus eradication’. The discovery of this virus raises doubts about whether the viruses we think we have eradicated, do they still exist, frozen beneath?
One of the scientists says: “Those pathogens could be banal bacteria (curable with antibiotics), or resistant bacteria, or nasty viruses. If they have been extinct for a long time, then our immune system is no longer prepared to respond to them,” the scientists wrote. One particularly scary scenario mentioned was the possibility that the highly contagious and deadly smallpox virus, which most people no longer have immunity to, could still be revived from the permafrost.
Now you may be asking, if this virus is that old and can still infect, are there other viruses which can infect humans under the frozen cover of the Arctic? Well, unfortunately, we don’t know the answer to that yet. This raises fears about the melting of the Arctic which may awaken other potentially deadly viruses from their slumber.
Our only hope is that the scientists don’t poke around there too much and awaken a deadly virus which may be peacefully ( Creepy, isn’t it? ) frozen. Doing so, may unleash the virus in all it’s deadly glory and may proclaim the start of the Zombie apocalypse ( Just kidding, or…Am I?)
A 30,000 year old giant virus is coming back to haunt you? | Tech Geek Forever
