by Camila Swaniawski

Recently, while scientists were evaluating long-dormant bacteria and viruses, they discovered something much more pressing. Fortunately, no alarming levels of pathological specimens were reported in coastal region main drinking water supply but while testing the waters for levels of cesium and uranium, scientists discovered a parasite in the aquifer that likely entered through salt water in the ocean and lives in the aquifer’s brackish water concentrations. The parasite has been dubbed Taenia Araballium (which shares its genus with tapeworms). This parasite, according to biologist Samuel Carson, a close colleague of Richard Dawkins and James Watson, two extremely prominent scientist, the parasite is lethal if left untreated and its symptoms are not portrayed until about 6 weeks after the parasite has implanted itself into the human body.

This has resulted from the eminent global warming issues. Through the times, humans have evolved to counteract these diseases and have developed antibiotics. However, due to the melting of ice cap, permafrost can release ancient bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

There have been cases of parasites being contracted from animal caucuses that have been thawed out by heatwaves. Frozen permafrost soil is the perfect place for bacteria to remain alive for very long periods of time, perhaps as long as a million years. That means melting ice could potentially cause possibilities that should never have happened.

For instance, in the 1890s there was a major epidemic of smallpox in Siberia. One town lost up to 40% of its population. Their bodies were buried under the upper layer of permafrost on the banks of the Kolyma River. 120 years later, Kolyma’s floodwaters have started eroding the banks, and the melting of the permafrost has speeded up this erosion process.

The parasite itself has been seen to cause symptoms of fatigue, muscle atrophy, and headaches. According to Carson, the parasite lives by depriving its host of adenosintriphosphate, or ATP, which is the compound that cells in the body use to keep themselves alive. ATP is replenished through food consumption and used up by the body to perform anything from subconscious activities like breathing to exercise. The more parasites there are, the more ATP they take to reproduce and it essentially evolves into a positive feedback loop of ATP thievery. Without sufficient ATP, your cells begin die and this parasite can begin to destroy major organs after about six months of being within the host. Times may vary to individual’s diet.