Tobolsk (MOL): It was one of the world’s most feared diseases that covered a person’s body in painful pus-filled spots. And scientists fear that smallpox, which was eradicated in 1979, could re-emerge from the most unlikely of places  defrosting corpses. A handful of experts fear that bodies infected with the disease, which are defrosting in Siberia having become exposed from melting frost could potentially begin a cycle of infection, should a person make contact with the remains.
Concerns have been raised for years, but a newly-discovered ‘giant’ 30,000-year-old virus found in Siberian permafrost has led France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) to warn that the prospect of a smallpox comeback cannot be ruled out.