Risk Assessment of waterborne coxsackievirus

Abstract

Virus contamination of the water environment through disposal of human wastewater remains a concern for the water industry. Coxsackieviruses are the most common nonpolio enteroviruses found in domestic wastewater and in contaminated surface water, groundwater, and drinking water. Although most infections result in mild febrile illness, coxsackieviruses are capable of causing a wide range of serious illnesses (including aseptic meningitis, myocarditis, and respiratory illness) and are associated with cases of insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus. A risk assessment approach was used to evaluate the potential public health effects associated with contaminated drinking water and recreational waters. An exponential model developed from human dose–response studies was used to describe the infectivity of coxsackievirus type B and estimate daily and yearly risks of infection, morbidity, and mortality. Concentrations of coxsackievirus reported in the literature were used to examine potential exposure. Although risks of infection for coxsackievirus are lower than for rotavirus, levels detected during outbreaks resulted in risks of 10–1 annually for drinking water. Risks assuming an ingestion of 100 mL per swim were 10–2 for a 10‐day exposure to freshwater. The severity of the diseases associated with this type of virus and its widespread contamination emphasize the importance of maintaining reliable wastewater and drinking water treatment.

An evaluation of parsimony for microbial risk assessment models

“…Quantitative methods to characterize human health risks associated with exposure to pathogenic microorganisms were first published in the 1970s (Fuhs, 1975;Dudley et al, 1976). Since that time many MRAs have used the conceptual risk assessment framework for chemicals (National Research Council, 1983) as a basis for waterborne (Haas, 1983;Regli et al, 1991;Rose et al, 1991;Gerba et al, 1996;Crabtree et al, 1997;Teunis et al, 1997;Mena et al, 2003) and foodborne pathogen assessments (Farber et al, 1996;Buchanan et al, 1998;Buchanan et al, 2000). Consistent with the chemical risk framework, most of these assessments assume that the number of individuals that are susceptible to infection is not time varying (static) and, thus risk is characterized at an individual level (Eisenberg et al, 2002).…”

Enteroviruses and Bacteriophages in Bathing Waters

“…The range of diseases associated with enterovirus infections includes poliomyelitis, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, neonatal enteroviral disease, myocarditis, pericarditis, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, upper respiratory disease, and others (28). Enterovirus infections can be recreationally waterborne (29). Some recent developments in cultivable enterovirus concentration and counting methods, such as VIRADEN, which combines concentration and detection (32,39), offered the opportunity of having realistic measurements of enteroviruses in volumes of up to 10 liters of bathing water.…”

Application of Pesticide Sprays to Fresh Produce: A Risk Assessment for Hepatitis A and Salmonella

“…The dose (d) of a microorganism needed to achieve the necessary P i value was also calculated using the exponential dose-response model (Mena et al 2003)…”