Human adenoviruses are common pathogens associated with many diseases, including respiratory, gastrointestinal, and ocular infections. Because they are now being increasingly recognized as agents of lifethreatening disseminated infection in immunocompromised patients, robust and sensitive laboratory detection methods are needed for their rapid diagnosis. We describe here a PCR assay using a single primer pair, targeting a region of the hexon gene containing hypervariable region 7, that can detect all known human adenovirus serotypes and allows for serotype determination through the analysis of the nucleotide sequence. This comprehensive assay has proven effective for diagnosing adenoviruses at the serotype level in a broad range of patient specimens, including conjunctival, nasopharyngeal, stool, blood, and urine specimens.

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A bench-scale study was conducted to determine the inactivation of adenovirus types 2, 5, and 41 by ultraviolet (UV) light, chlorine, and monochloramine. The motivation for this study was to determine whether UV disinfection followed by chlorine or monochloramine for a very short contact time (e.g. a minute) could satisfy regulatory requirements for 4-log virus inactivation. In order to overcome the difficulty Ad 41 presents for enumeration of the virus in cell culture, a technique was used that combined immunofluorescent staining of viral antigen with traditional scoring of cytopathic effect (CPE). A UV dose of 40 mJ/cm 2 (millijoules per square centimetre) (applied using a collimated beam apparatus) achieved approximately 1-log inactivation of adenovirus (Ad) types 2, 5 and 41, confirming previous research. Ad 41 was found to be more UV-resistant to UV light than Ad 2 or Ad 5 at UV doses > 70 mJ/cm 2 to a statistically significant degree (95% confidence); however, at lower UV doses there were no statistically significant differences. Experiments with Ad 5 and Ad 41 at 5 °C and pH 8.5 showed that chlorine was very effective against Ad 5 and Ad 41, with a CT (product of disinfectant concentration and contact time) of 0.22 mg·min/L providing 4-log inactivation. Monochloramine was less effective against these adenoviruses, with a CT of 350 mg·min/L required to achieve 2.5-log inactivation of Ad 5 and 41 at 5 °C and pH 8.5.