Expert: Ralph Salier - 10/22/2009

Question
If you unearth plague or other infectious disease victims, is there any possibility of releasing that virus?

Answer
Hi Suzanne,

There are some organisms that can survive a long time in the right environment.  When excavations took place in the privies at Fort Detroit back in the 1970s in preparation for building the Renaissance center, a number of excavators got cholera.   But since we knew that this was a possibility, the local hospitals were prepared for it.  But this is extremely rare.  Most viruses need to be in a host or passing quickly from one host to another and can not survive in the environment for any length of  time.  Bacterium like Cholera, may last longer but the conditions must be perfect for survival.

I have worked with victims of small pox, the plague, cholera and influenza.  The bodies were just bone at the time of excavation so there was nothing for the bugs to live in.  I do know that some sailors that died of the 1916 influenza while on expedition in the arctic have been used to obtain samples of the virus for study to see what similarities it has to H1N1 (the avian flu).  But this was highly unusual and it was because the bodies had been frozen and there was no decay that this was possible.