The detection of enteric viruses in beach sand

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Work by Helena Solo-Gabriele and led by colleagues in Portugal show that viruses accumulate in beach sands.   

Figure: Distribution of RNA or DNA of Viruses in Beach Sands showing the Distribution between the Intertidal (swash) and Supratidal (just above the high tide line) Zones.  The size of the red circle represents the proportion of samples that detected positive for the genetic material of each virus.

Figure: Distribution of RNA or DNA of Viruses in Beach Sands showing the Distribution between the Intertidal (swash) and Supratidal (just above the high tide line) Zones.  The size of the red circle represents the proportion of samples that detected positive for the genetic material of each virus. 

The genetic material (the RNA or DNA) of viruses that can cause disease are found to accumulate in beach sands, beach sands corresponding to the intertidal zone (swash zone) and to the supratidal zone (the zone right above the high tide line)The accumulation of viral genetic material corresponds to  common gastro-intestinal viruses such as norovirus and adenovirus and the less common Aichi virusAlthough the genetic material was detected in beach sand it is not known if the genetic material is “active” or indicative of viruses capable of infecting humans. The beaches studied were in Portugal, one of which had a recent festival with participant camping, which is the suspected cause of the elevated levels of viral genetic material detectedThe lessons learned from the Portuguese beaches can be applied throughout the world to better understand the possibility of disease transmission through beach sandsResearchers recommend a risk assessment to further document the possibility of disease from beach sands found to contain the genetic material from gastro-intestinal viruses.  

This work was supported by the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR) program, project Surveillance of Emerging Pathogens and Antibiotic Resistance in Aquatic Ecosystems (SARA), grant number Aquatic/0006/2020.

A. Robalo, J. Brandão, T. Shibata, H. Solo-Gabriele, R. Santos, S. Monteiro, Detection of enteric viruses and SARS-CoV-2 in beach sand, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 901, 2023, 165836, ISSN 0048-9697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165836  

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