[ad_1]
A prominent scientist has warned that rotting carcasses and the carcasses of animals with deadly diseases could cause the next global pandemic.
Ohio State University microbiologist Anirban Mahapatra said deadly diseases such as anthrax, tetanus and smallpox can be preserved in Arctic ice caps for thousands, if not millions of years. , according to the British newspaper Daily Star.
Historically, this has not been a major threat to humanity, but with the melting of ice caps and the rapid retreat of glaciers, diseases within them can infect living creatures and cause widespread epidemics.
American Research Association biologist Dr. Mahapatra told the journal: “There are viruses that can survive tens, hundreds, thousands and theoretically even millions of years in ice. And what happens is that we find a lot of well-preserved animals, like mammoths, which were revealed by the thaw of the ice. And if these animals get infected with viruses and bacteria, they can pass it on to other animals and humans.
It seems that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, a process known as “polar amplification”, which cannot help it. Worse, toxic permafrost can also carry epidemics to which most people have not been exposed for many years. They are therefore less immune to it.
Patients hospitalized due to the Corona epidemic
One example is smallpox, which is likely to be found in corpses across the world’s glaciers.
And if the outbreak results in widespread spread to nearby humans, it could spread rapidly and infect millions of people.
Mahapatra continued, “It is possible that viruses that we no longer live with are spreading. Especially if it’s human corpses that came out and they got smallpox, for example. We are not routinely vaccinated against smallpox, it is a problem if these viruses are viable. “
expressive
Mahapatra cited a new study from Ohio State University on the range of diseases found on the Tibetan Plateau, where some of the world’s oldest ice has been frozen for tens of thousands of years.
“What they found was a number of viruses, coming from 15,000-year-old ice, including 28 types of viruses that had never been seen before,” Mahapatra said.
“If what’s in the ice is a respiratory infection, like COVID-19, then it can cause a major outbreak,” Dr. Mahapatra noted.
Due to the nature of world travel, even during a pandemic, he said, remote villages can spawn true global epidemics. Population centers that are not particularly close to major ice sources are therefore unlikely to be avoided.
“There are melting glaciers in different parts of the world, the Andes, the Himalayas, parts of the Alps, so it’s not just concentrated in the Arctic,” he added.
Among the many lessons we must learn from the current pandemic is the awareness of the severity of low probability events that must remain on our minds, according to academic Mahapatra.
Unsurprisingly, he explained, there is only one obvious way to avoid such an outcome, noting: “The biggest problem is climate change, which will not end. We must save the arctic ice and the permafrost. We still have a chance to do so. “
Source link
