September 10, 2015
It may be a good thing that this news comes at the end of the season of seafood indulgence.
New research suggests oysters, a summertime delicacy, may be a major carrier of norovirus, one of the most common causes of gastrointestinal distress in the world.
According to the study, which was conducted in China and published in The New York Times and the Huffington Post, researchers analyzed the genetic sequences of 1,077 samples of noroviruses found in oysters and found that 80 percent were linked to human noroviruses.
Furthermore, the majority of matches came from oysters in coastal waters, where human fecal contamination is found to be more prevalent.
Yongjie Wang, a food science specialist at Shanghai Ocean University and lead author of the study, explained that oysters provide a place for human noroviruses to hide between outbreaks and mutate.
They also can be transmitted back to humans, presumably when oysters are eaten raw, Wang said.
Although most patients recover from the norovirus after a few days of major discomfort, the virus can be lethal to infants, the elderly and people with weak immune systems, and it’s highly contagious, especially in confined environments.
Read the full study here.
