Occurrence, removal and mass loads of antiviral drugs in seven wastewater treatment plants with various treatment processes.

Antiviral drugs are among the most common and important classes of pharmaceuticals to treat viral infections, however their continuous emission and persistence in the receiving environment has attracted increasing attention about their potential ecological risks. Here we investigated the occurrence, fate and mass load of 9 antiviral drugs for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and hepatitis B, in 7 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with different treatment processes in Guangdong, China. Totally, 8 target antiviral drugs were detected in the WWTPs influent wastewater, effluent wastewater and sludge, with maximal concentrations up to 7624 ng/L (telbivudine), 568 ng/L (telbivudine), and 2013 ng/g wet weight (telbivudine), respectively.