Virus isolation data from water of some European rivers: an overview.

The present overview is the result of our scrutiny of data concerning the presence of viruses in the water of diverse European rivers. These data were assembled from the published literature--articles, doctoral theses and reports from investigations conducted by environmental virologists beginning during the final years of the sixth decenium of the twentieth century, first in France, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Ukraine, U.S.

Human viruses possibly present in the environment.

This paper deals with some aspects of human viruses in the environment. Thus, a systematization of these viruses was made on the basis of their elimination from the human body and also with regard to their detection in various segments of the environment. The data compiled lead to the conclusion that virtually any human virus, of any taxonomic group known, may be present, in one or another segment of the environment, at one or another time.

[Several health problems caused by viral contamination of sea water].

The occurrence of human viruses in the marine environment offers a vast domain of research and reflection. In this respect many findings concerning the degree of seawater viral contamination and its health implications have been accomplished. The present report synthetizes some public health aspects in connection with the viral pollution of seawater on the beaches frequented for swimming or villegiature.

[Microbiological and physicochemical indicators of viral contamination of the drinking water].

The paper reviews the connection between the human viruses and some common sanitary indicators of drinking water contamination. An analysis is made of: physico-chemical indicators (water turbidity, residual chlorine, some products of the bacterial metabolism in the intestine), bacterial indicators (total and faecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, faecal streptococci, clostridia and other intestinal anaerobic bacteria, saprophytic mycobacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and some bacteriophages. The conclusion is drawn that if such indirect indicators of water faecal pollution are generally useful in sanitary-microbiological assessment of drinking water, for finding its viral pollution, in certain epidemiological and hygiene-sanitary situations the virologic examination of the drinking water is quite compulsory.