Disease outbreak due to melting permafrost

Zombie bacteria that awaken from old corpses might sound like the stuff of an X-Files episode. The premise is far from a complete fiction, however.

For one, anthrax bacteria are hardy microbes. As University of Missouri bacteriologist George Stewart told the Missourian in 2014, the organisms turn into spores in the cold. They play the long game, waiting in the soil for the temperatures to rise. Once it hits a certain threshold, they morph back into a more mobile, infectious state.

“As a consequence of permafrost melting, the vectors of deadly infections of the 18th and 19th centuries may come back,” the scientists warned, “especially near the cemeteries where the victims of these infections were buried.” Cattle grave sites should be monitored, they concluded, and “public health authorities should maintain permanent alertness.”

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/researchers-revive-30000-year-old-giant-virus-found-in-the-permafrost-of-northeast-siberia