Biosecurity

Is Undead Smallpox Reemerging From Siberian Graves?

As if the news that resurrected anthrax from thawed-out reindeer wasn't bad enough, increasingly warming temperatures are prompting renewed fears that permafrost could thaw enough to unleash smallbox from remote Russian cemeteries.

As The Siberian Times reports, this year the permafrost melt has been three times more extreme than usual above the Arctic Circle, causing erosion near graveyards of a town where smallpox wiped out 40 percent of the population decades ago.

Yet, some scientists argue that it's not the graves we should be worried about.

Scientists from Russia's Virology and Biotechnology Center (or Vector) in Novosibirsk are investigating the bodies, some of which show bone sores associated with smallpox. Fortunately, only fragments of the strain’s DNA were found, rather than any evidence of surviving smallpox. However, the center plans to conduct more research on "deeper burials" in the future, just to make sure. So far, luckily, that's been the case for years, as another expedition in 2012 found only "fragments" as well.