Detection and characterization of hepatitis A virus circulating in Egypt.

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) still poses a considerable problem worldwide. In the current study, hepatitis A virus was recovered from wastewater samples collected from three wastewater treatment plants over one year. Using RT-PCR, HAV was detected in 43 out of 68 samples (63.

Assessment of coliphage surrogates for testing drinking water treatment devices.

Test protocols have been developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to test water treatment devices/systems that are used at the individual and home levels to ensure the removal of waterborne viruses. The goal of this study was to assess if coliphage surrogates could be used in this testing in place of the currently required use of animal or human enteric viruses. Five different coliphages (MS-2, PRD1, ΦX-174, Qβ, and fr) were compared to the removal of poliovirus type 1 (LSc-2ab) by eight different water treatment devices/systems using a general case and a challenge case (high organic load, dissolved solids, and turbidity) test water as defined by the USEPA.

Comparative Assessment of Mammalian Reoviruses versus Enteroviruses as Indicator for Viral Water Pollution.

Unlabelled: Enteric viruses are important causative agents of human diseases. Among the enteric viruses, reoviruses and enteroviruses are prevalent in various aquatic environments. This study was carried out to detect and compare the presence of reoviruses and enteroviruses by ICC-PCR in one wastewater and three drinking water treatment plants, studying the possibility of using reoviruses as indicator of viral water pollution and genotyping of the isolated strains.