Study Links Viruses’ Spread to Ocean, EVMS Researcher Says

By Nancy Young, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Mar. 25–NORFOLK — A new study has found that a virus “with a very large ocean presence” may be linked to hepatitis, an Eastern Virginia Medical School researcher said Friday.

The study provides the first “large-scale” evidence that there may be “viruses that are widely dispersed in the ocean that are infecting us,” said David O. Matson , professor of pediatrics at EVMS and a researcher at the school’s Center for Pediatric Research.

Don’t cancel your day at the beach yet. There is still much to learn, Matson said, including whether the virus is even in the Atlantic Ocean.

The virus “was first studied in the Pacific and that’s where all the work has been done,” Matson said.

It also can’t be said that the virus causes hepatitis.

“The evidence for hepatitis is good, but not conclusive,” said Matson, one of the authors of the study. “I don’t think it’s fair to say we’ve found a new hepatitis virus. I don’t think that’s been proven.”

Matson said the study, which examined hundreds of samples from a U.S. regional blood bank serving eight Northwestern states, provides a jumping-off point for further research.

“Is it worldwide? “¦ How do people get it? What does it cause in humans?” Matson said, listing future research questions related to the pathogen, known as a vesivirus.

The study found blood samples containing antibodies to the vesivirus — the strain of which was similar to that found in marine mammals — were more likely to come from blood donors who also had evidence of liver damage or who had hepatitis.

“We don’t know how these folks could have been exposed” to the virus, Matson said. Possible causes include eating raw shellfish — cooking would most likely kill the virus — or swimming in the ocean.

“It’s possible, possible. We just don’t know,” Matson said. “I don’t want to raise an unfounded fear.”

One implication is that if the virus does turn out to cause hepatitis, blood banks would need to add it to the list of things they screen for to keep the blood supply safe, Matson said.

The study is published in the current issue of the online Journal of Medical Virology .

Reach Nancy Young at (757) 446-2947 or nancy.young@pilotonline.com.

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