Climate change, melting cryosphere and frozen pathogens: Should we worry…?

ABSTRACT: Permanently frozen environments (glaciers, permafrost) are considered as natural reservoirs of huge amounts of microorganisms, mostly dormant, including human pathogens. Due to global warming, which increases the rate of ice-melting, approximately 4 × 10²¹ of these microorganisms are released annually from their frozen confinement and enter natural ecosystems, in close proximity to human settlements. Some years ago, the hypothesis was put forward that this massive release of potentially-pathogenic microbes-many of which disappeared from the face of the Earth thousands and even millions of years ago-could give rise to epidemics. The recent anthrax outbreaks that occurred in Siberia, and the presence of bacterial and viral pathogens in glaciers worldwide, seem to confirm this hypo

SUBMITTER: Yarzabal LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8164958 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature