New evidence for endemic circulation of Ross River virus in the Pacific Islands and the potential for emergence

- Ross River virus (RRV) is thought to be endemic only in Australia and Papua New Guinea, with marsupials as reservoirs.
- Serological evidence is provided of endemic RRV circulation in American Samoa, where there are no marsupials.
- The study findings imply that mammal species with pan-global distribution could act as reservoir hosts.
- RRV could potentially become endemic well beyond its current know distribution.

SummaryObjectivesAn epidemic of Ross River virus (RRV) occurred in the South Pacific in 1979-1980, but RRV has not been thought to occur endemically outside Australia and Papua New Guinea. A seroprevalence study was conducted to determine whether RRV has circulated in American Samoa since 1980.MethodsRRV ELISA IgG was performed on 200 serum samples collected in American Samoa in 2010; seroneutralization tests were performed on 60 representative samples.ResultsOf 196 available ELISA IgG results, 145 (74%, 95% confidence interval 67-80%) were seropositive. Of the 60 samples subjected to seroneutralization testing, none of the 15 ELISA IgG-negative and 16 of the 45 ELISA IgG-positive samples neutralized RRV. ELISA IgG seroprevalence was higher in persons born before/during the 1979-1980 RRV outbreak (78.3%), but was also high (63.0%) in people born after the outbreak who had lived their entire lives in American Samoa.ConclusionsThis study provides serological evidence that RRV circulation is likely to have occurred in American Samoa after 1980. Considering there are no marsupials in American Samoa, this finding implies that other species are capable of acting as reservoir hosts and indicates the potential for RRV to circulate in a much wider area than those currently recognized.