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Global specialists conducted a training exercise focused on defending against a potential menace, which they think might be the origin of the upcoming pandemic — thawed prehistoric creatures.
Dubbed Exercise Polaris the World Health Organisation The (WHO) event featured experts from 15 nations competing against a hypothetical virus named 'Mammothpox'.
The group was assigned to control the outbreak of an organism that originated from the thawed remains of a woolly mammoth, which infected both the researchers and a movie production team who found it, threatening to cause global dissemination.
Although the situation and the virus were entirely fictional, scientists caution about the potential emergence of 'zombie viruses' as a result of melting permafrost. climate change is very real.
Experts have found these so-called 'Methuselah microbes' can remain dormant in the soil and the bodies of frozen animals, like mammoths, for tens of thousands of years.
Should this illness arise from the ice, our bodies would lack any natural defenses against an infection, similar to what happened with the initial emergence of the Covid virus.
The exercise follows just a few days later. a global group of researchers cautioned As global temperatures rose, it increased the chances of these frozen microorganisms making the leap to live hosts such as animals and humans.
Dr. Khaled Abass, an expert in environmental health sciences at the University of Sharjah in the UAE and a co-author of the study, stated: Climate change It's not just about melting ice; it's also breaking down the walls between different ecosystems, wildlife, and humans.
'The melting permafrost might also unleash old bacteria or viruses that have been locked away for millennia.'
The documentation from the WHO included with Exercise Polaris outlines the possible dangers associated with such an occurrence.
'Research indicates that ancient viruses have been shown to stay active in permafrost for millennia,' The Telegraph reported.
'Melting perennial frost because of climate shifts has sparked worries over the possible emergence of diseases not encountered before in contemporary medical science.'
During Exercise Polaris, Mammothpox emerged as a lethal virus closely linked to the eradicated smallpox and the presently prevalent monkeypox, known alternatively as mpox, carrying a fatality rate that falls between those of the two mentioned diseases.
It is believed that smallpox claimed approximately one-third of the individuals it infected, resulting in roughly half a billion deaths globally during the century leading up to its eradication in 1980 through worldwide vaccination efforts.
Mpox has a significantly lower mortality rate but remains potentially fatal. A newly emerging variant, which is predominantly circulating in Africa, poses a heightened risk to children, with fatalities occurring in as many as one out of every ten cases reported.
The Mammothpox situation was crafted to remain manageable as long as nations collaborated to halt its dissemination.
Participating countries included delegates from Somalia, Qatar, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, and Ukraine.
Every nation received just a piece of the puzzle deliberately, as their individual Mammothpox outbreaks varied somewhat to assess how effectively they would exchange data.
For instance, one team learned that an infected researcher from the Arctic was aboard a cruise ship, providing them with an isolated setting where they could observe how rapidly the virus might disseminate.
Various nations received situations like an epidemic starting at a big event or spreading inside one family home.
Although conducted over two days, the drill was intended to simulate the conditions of a three-week-long hypothetical epidemic.
On the following day, attendees learned that efforts to control the virus were being impeded by political issues and differing approaches among various regions.
Next, they had to adjust as certain nations imposed global lockdowns, prohibiting all entries, whereas others kept their borders accessible but depended on strategies such as contact tracing.
In time, the squad succeeded in containing the Mammothpox epidemic.
However, the WHO has admitted that an actual outbreak in real life would probably be far more complex when it comes to global collaboration.
For example, countries like the The United States, during President Donald Trump's tenure, and Argentina stated they would leave the international health organization earlier this year.
At the same time, the risk of frozen pathogens contaminating humans is on the rise.
As the ice retreats, groups of researchers are searching for thawed prehistoric creatures, alongside ivory collectors aiming to profit from mammoth tusks.
Over more than ten years, researchers have been aware that bacteria and viruses trapped in the Arctic ice might still pose a risk of infection to living creatures.
In 2014, researchers extracted viruses from the frozen ground of Siberia. and demonstrated that they were still capable of infecting live cells even after being frozen for millennia.
Similarly, in 2023, Scientists managed to revive a virus from an amoeba that had been frozen for 48,500 years.
Scientists approximate that four sextillion — which is four followed by 21 zeroes — cells are released from permafrost annually based on present rates.
Although scholars believe that merely one out of every 100 ancient pathogens has the potential to destabilize ecosystems, the substantial quantity being released from the ice increases the probability of a hazardous event occurring.
Moreover, several occurrences have highlighted the possible dangers involved.
In 2016, Anthrax spores were released from a dead animal. that had been preserved in the Siberian permafrost for 75 years, resulting in dozens being hospitalized and one child dying.
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