Nobel laureate warns of the dangers of viruses from melting ice

People are unprepared to face viruses that may reside in ice and permafrost and be released as they melt. Rae Kwon Chung, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former adviser to the United Nations (UN) secretary-general on climate change, said on Feb. 16.

"I think so, since we don't even know what viruses are there," he said in an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency, pointing to anthrax spores that may persist in permafrost.

As specified "Gazeta.Ru" with reference to the researcher, such viruses can persist, for example, in Greenland, northern Canada and Russia and released as the ice melts.

Earlier, on January 5, an outbreak of human metapneumovirus occurred in China. It was specified that mainly children under 14 years of age are exposed to this disease. In China, people living in the northern provinces of the country are most often infected.