Heat wave-related anthrax outbreak in Siberia kills young boy, thousands of reindeer

An anthrax outbreak in remote western Siberia has led to the hospitalization of at least 90 people in the Arctic town of Salekhard, with at least 20 confirmed cases of the illness. One person, a 12-year-old boy, has died from anthrax according to the TASS News Agency and other media reports. 

The outbreak has hit local reindeer populations especially hard, with at least 2,300 animals reported dead.

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The anthrax outbreak, a rare though not unheard of event in Russia, may be just the latest sign of how global warming is transforming the planet's coldest regions.

The outbreak in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous region is taking place in an area that has experienced an unusually mild summer, and has seen rapidly warming conditions during the past few decades. 

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According to Alexey Kokorin, a scientist with WWF Russia, the ongoing heat wave and long-term warming trends has led to more and more melting of the layer of frozen soil in Siberia, which is known as permafrost. 

The warmth and its role in melting permafrost is crucial to understanding the outbreak, Kokorin told Mashable in an interview, because human and animal bodies in the Arctic have long been buried in shallow ground. Increased permafrost melting makes these carcasses more accessible. 

Anthrax is caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis and can be deadly if it isn't quickly treated with antibiotics. It can survive as spores in the soil for hundreds of years before entering an animal.

Anthrax that killed humans and animals in Siberia a century ago can be spread through anthrax spores to individuals alive today if they come into contact with the carcasses, Kokorin says.

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The anthrax outbreak, Kokorin said, “... Looks like it is linked to global warming and this heat wave. This heat wave is really abnormal. It is 35 degrees Celsius which is really rare, and it is not just for one day, it is for the whole month,” he said.  

These global warming-related trends have helped melt deeper into the permafrost, which may help explain how anthrax — which is primarily a risk to workers who are in contact with livestock — broke out into a larger population. 

It isn't just Kokorin, who works for an environmental group, citing climate change's role in this outbreak. According to TASS, the regional governor of Yamal-Nenets autonomous region also cited the heat wave and long-term warming as key factors in causing it.