This is not the first time that scientists have discovered a virus that has survived tens of thousands of years. Last July, they discovered Pandoravirus salinus in a sedimentary layer off the coast of Chile and Pandoravirus dulcis at the bottom of a pond in Melbourne, Australia. This time, it is under the permafrost, the constantly frozen earth, of Siberia that scientists have discovered a new “giant” virus (with a diameter of 0.5 millionth of a meter).
This virus, called Pithovirus, remained buried for more than 30,000 years before resurfacing in this zone released by the thaw. And this is what worries scientists: this discovery suggests the possibility of a re-emergence of viruses that were considered eradicated. As Jean-Michel Claverie, of the CNRS in Marseille, points out, “the demonstration that viruses buried in the ground more than 30,000 years ago can survive and still be infectious suggests that the melting of permafrost due to global warming and exploitation mining and industrial activity in the arctic regions could pose risks to public health. pathogenic for humans in Siberian permafrost, and in particular traces of smallpox, a highly contagious and epidemic infectious disease, which was normally eradicated in 1977.
