title: New evidence for endemic circulation of Ross River virus in the Pacific Islands and the potential for emergence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An 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.
  
  
  METHODS
  RRV ELISA IgG was performed on 200 serum samples collected in American Samoa in 2010; seroneutralization tests were performed on 60 representative samples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This 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.
authors.affiliation: Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, 62 Mills Rd, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, ACT 0200, Australia. Electronic address: colleen.lau@anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Institut Louis Malardé, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
authors.forename: Maite
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aubry
authors.affiliation: Institut Louis Malardé, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Musso
authors.affiliation: Institut Louis Malardé, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Teissier
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paulous
authors.affiliation: La Reunion island University and UMR 134 PIMIT, 97491 Sainte-Clotilde, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Desprès
authors.affiliation: UMR Emergence des Pathologies Virales, Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: de-Lamballerie
authors.affiliation: UMR Emergence des Pathologies Virales, Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pastorino
authors.affiliation: Institut Louis Malardé, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
authors.forename: Van-Mai
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Cao-Lormeau
authors.affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weinstein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D018354:Alphavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D010139:Pacific Islands / Q000453:epidemiology; D012398:Ross River virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G
keywords: Arboviruses; Ecology; Emerging infectious diseases; Epidemiology; Pacific Islands; River virus