First Molecular Detection of Group A Rotaviruses in Drinking Water Sources in Beijing, China

Abstract

The most prevalent group A rotavirus found in the diarrheic children was also determined in drinking water sources including raw water, treated water and tap water in Beijing, and then the possible contamination contributions to tap water for human consumption were discussed in this study.

First molecular detection of group A rotavirus in urban and hospital sewage systems by nested-RT PCR in Shiraz, Iran

“…The data obtained in our study indicate that although the rotavirus detection rate was lower in samples collected from sewage plant effluents than in those collected from the influents, the virus contamination remained considerable (36.36%) and still represents a real public health hazard. This data is in agreement with the results of previous studies showing the presence of rotaviruses not only in raw, but also in treated wastewater [7,8,11]. Our removal efficiency results (63.64%) are comparable to previous reports in other parts of the world, suggesting that even properly working wastewater treatment systems remove only 20-80% of enteric viruses [8,11,30], confirming the high resistance of the virus to the sewage treatment process.…”

“…In the present study, we found group A rotaviruses in 25% of the samples analyzed from raw and treated sewage. Our results are comparable to those of previous studies conducted around the world which have reported a prevalence of rotaviruses of 11 to 42% in wastewater samples [7,8,11,22]. …”

“…Each year, these viruses are globally associated with 111 million cases of gastroenteritis, 25 million clinical visits, 2 million hospitalizations and 352,000-592,000 deaths among children aged <5 years old [6]. After replicating in the gastrointestinal tract, rotaviruses are shed in large quantities and may be disseminated widely into environmental waters such as groundwater [4], surface water [7], drinking water [8], and wastewater [3,9,10]. The stability of rotaviruses in different types of environmental water and their resistance to physicochemical treatment processes and adverse conditions in sewage treatment plants, makes their transmission through water highly significant [8,10,11].…”

“…After replicating in the gastrointestinal tract, rotaviruses are shed in large quantities and may be disseminated widely into environmental waters such as groundwater [4], surface water [7], drinking water [8], and wastewater [3,9,10]. The stability of rotaviruses in different types of environmental water and their resistance to physicochemical treatment processes and adverse conditions in sewage treatment plants, makes their transmission through water highly significant [8,10,11]. It is important to consider the epidemiological surveys of rotavirus infection in water quality studies, not only because of their importance as the leading cause of severe diarrhea [5], but also because of their ability to survive in environmental waters for long periods of time [3,7] and the reuse of these waters for the irrigation of land used for crop cultivation [12].…”

Efficiency of Traditional Water Treatment Plant and Compact Units in Removing Viruses

“…The detection of genome in the drinking water samples did not mean the capability of the virus to cause diseases. It does not confirm the infectivity of the virus (He et al, 2009). Liu et al, (2006) attributed the higher frequency of detection of rotaviruses (for example) was due to an outbreak of diarrheal in Beijing 2006 where Rotavirus was detected in 60% of all diarrheal patients.…”