[2] STL polyomavirus was first discovered in 2013 in a stool sample from a healthy child in Malawi; the same research group then detected the virus in stool from children in The Gambia and Saint Louis, Missouri (after which the virus was named).

[4] Different STLPyV isolates have a relatively large amount of sequence variation, up to approximately 5%; this pattern is similar to both MWPyV and the much better characterized BK polyomavirus.

[1] Among the human polyomaviruses, STLPyV is most closely related to MWPyV; like MWPyV, its genome suggests different ancestries for the large tumor antigen and the major capsid protein VP1, implying that the virus might have evolved from an ancestral recombination event.

[1][4] In the 2015 taxonomic update to the polyomavirus group, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses classified STLPyV in the genus Deltapolyomavirus.

In a study that profiled polyomavirus seroprevalence, or prevalence of detectable antibodies against viral proteins indicating either past or present exposure in immunocompetent adults, the estimate of STLPyV prevalence was approximately 70%, with an age distribution consistent with transmission of maternal antibodies combined with early childhood infection.