Pandemic flu may rise from the glacier

Scientists are concerned that global warming may melt ice in lakes and rivers, freeing up the flu viruses that have been imprisoned for several decades. Once released, the virus can attack poultry and cause a pandemic in humans.

'Our hypothesis is that flu viruses can survive in ice after many winters and attack wild birds when they return to the rivers and lakes in the spring,' said Scott Rogers, a researcher at Bowling Green University. State, Ohio, said.

Crowley Lake in California, USA.
(Photo: livingwilderness.com)

Roger has sought evidence of the existence of ice microorganisms for decades. He and Dany Shoham at the University of Bar-Ilan (Israel), David Gilichinsky at the Russian National Academy of Sciences have found many strains of influenza at three large lakes in Siberia - where water freezes in winter and melts into spring every year.

When analyzing the genetic structure of viruses taken from Lake Park, which is home to the most migratory birds in Siberia, Rogers and colleagues discovered that some RNA fragments regulate the formation of haemagglutinin, the surface protein that helps viruses attach to cells. they attack.

Researchers say they will continue to search for viruses in glaciers in Alaska, Wyoming (USA). The group also plans to visit Canada and the Himalayas. Ice rivers and lakes in these places are located on routes to Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa of migratory birds, meaning they will leave the virus when discharged into the river. Rogers believes that when the ice melts, the virus will escape into the air and then continue to attack migratory birds in the spring.

'The glaciers are the place where the flu is stored. As the global temperature rises, the ice melts and the flu virus will be released. They can cause pandemics in humans, ' said Roger.

Jonathan Stoye, director of virology at the British National Medical Research Institute, said that the virus is capable of attacking animals depending on how frozen they are.

'Viruses frozen in water are unlikely to attack due to relatively low domestic pH levels. But if the virus is in bird waste, they may not freeze and still survive at negative temperatures , "he said.

Stoye added that the virus was able to survive in a water environment at below-negative temperatures if they were frozen once. At least 90% of the virus is destroyed after each defrosting process.

Rogers and scientists at Syracuse University, New York, USA have found the first ancient virus in the Arctic frozen state in 1999 . Many other researchers have ' awakened ' a bacterium in an ice lake in Alaska. By the time they were awakened, they existed for at least 32,000 years. Earlier, people also succeeded in reviving a 250 million-year-old bacterium stuck in frozen salt water.

So far, the H5N1 virus has swept across Asia, Europe and Africa. The fight against bird flu has been launched in more than 50 countries. Since 2003, the virus has claimed at least 153 lives

Migratory birds are thought to be the culprits that spread the H5N1 avian influenza virus, causing at least 200 million birds to die or be destroyed by humans worldwide.

Experts are worried that H5N1 can mutate genes to easily attack people. 3 pandemic flu happened in the last century. During the period of 1918-1919, about 40 to 100 million people died because of the H1N1 virus. A variant of this strain of virus still exists and continues to cause disease to this day.

Viet Linh