Scientists have discovered a new type of virus in 30,000-year-old permafrost and managed to revive it, producing an infection.
Fortunately, the new virus, named Pithovirus sibericum, infects amoebas and is not harmful to humans.
But its ability to become infectious again after so many millenniums is a warning, writes Jean-Michel Claverie at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at Aix-Marseille University and his colleagues in a new study published Monday..
"The revival of such an ancestral amoeba infecting virus … suggests that the thawing of permafrost either from global warming or industrial exploitation of circumpolar regions might not be exempt from future threats to human or animal health," they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Giant virus revived from ancient permafrost - Technology & Science - CBC News
Fortunately, the new virus, named Pithovirus sibericum, infects amoebas and is not harmful to humans.
But its ability to become infectious again after so many millenniums is a warning, writes Jean-Michel Claverie at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at Aix-Marseille University and his colleagues in a new study published Monday..
"The revival of such an ancestral amoeba infecting virus … suggests that the thawing of permafrost either from global warming or industrial exploitation of circumpolar regions might not be exempt from future threats to human or animal health," they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
more
Giant virus revived from ancient permafrost - Technology & Science - CBC News
