Melting Glaciers May Spark The Next Viral Pandemic!

London: The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is not over, but has slowed down with subvariants of highly transmissible but less severe Omicron strain dominating new infections.

Now, scientists have found that the next pandemic may not come from bats or birds, but melting glaciers!

With climate change having begun to affect the entire world in some form or the other, a rapid and intense level of glacier melting is being observed.

Genetic analysis of soil has revealed risks of viral spillover – that is, when confronted with a new host, a virus may infect it and transmit sustainably in the new host.

The study, published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences’, has dealt with chances of spillover as climate change affects environment the world over.

Scientists’ biggest concern is melting glaciers, since the removal of permafrost (permanently frozen) weight may unload viruses and bacteria which are locked up in glaciers.

These viruses could then infect wildlife, which in turn might lead to zoonosis as the virus jumps on to humans – similar to SARS-CoV-2 which led to COVID-19 pandemic.

“Should climate change also shift the species’ range of potential viral vectors and reservoirs northwards, the High Arctic could become fertile ground for emerging pandemics,” the researchers said.

Soil and sediment samples were collected from Lake Hazen, the world’s largest High Arctic freshwater lake. Researchers then sequenced RNA and DNA in these samples to identify signatures closely matching with those of known viruses.

The spillover risk, estimated by measuring congruence between the viral and eukaryotic host phylogenetic trees, showed that it increases with runoff from glacier melt.

Viruses, described as the most abundant replicating entities on Earth, are present everywhere.

“The High Arctic is of special interest as it is particularly affected by climate change, warming faster than the rest of the world. Indeed, a warming climate and rapid transitions of the environment may both increase spillover risk by varying the global distribution and dynamics of viruses, as well as that of their reservoirs and vectors, as shown by arboviruses and the Hendra virus,” the scientists said.