Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is transmitted via the fecal–oral route and has been recognized as a common source of large waterborne outbreaks involving contaminated water in developing countries. Thus, there is the need to produce experimental data on the disinfection kinetics of HEV by chlorine in water samples with diverse levels of fecal contamination. Here, the inactivation of HEV and human adenovirus C serotype 2 (HAdV2), used as a reference virus, was monitored using immunofluorescence and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays. HEV has been shown to be susceptible to chlorine disinfection and presented equivalent kinetics to human adenoviruses. The C(t) values observed for a 2-log reduction of HEV were 0.41 in buffered demand-free water and 11.21 mg/L × min in the presence of 1% sewage. The results indicate that the inactivation kinetics of HEV and HAdV2 are equivalent and support the use of chlorine disinfection as an effective strategy to control HEV waterborne transmission.
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Research Article|
February 13 2014
Chlorine inactivation of hepatitis E virus and human adenovirus 2 in water
Rosina Girones;
1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Avd. Diagonal 643, Barcelona, 08028, Catalonia, Spain
4Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-8009, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
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Anna Carratalà;
Anna Carratalà
1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Avd. Diagonal 643, Barcelona, 08028, Catalonia, Spain
2Present address: Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
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Byron Calgua;
Byron Calgua
1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Avd. Diagonal 643, Barcelona, 08028, Catalonia, Spain
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Miquel Calvo;
Miquel Calvo
3Department of Biostatistics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
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Jesús Rodriguez-Manzano;
Jesús Rodriguez-Manzano
1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Avd. Diagonal 643, Barcelona, 08028, Catalonia, Spain
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Suzanne Emerson
Suzanne Emerson
4Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-8009, USA
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J Water Health (2014) 12 (3): 436–442.
Article history
Received:
February 20 2013
Accepted:
January 13 2014
Citation
Rosina Girones, Anna Carratalà, Byron Calgua, Miquel Calvo, Jesús Rodriguez-Manzano, Suzanne Emerson; Chlorine inactivation of hepatitis E virus and human adenovirus 2 in water. J Water Health 1 September 2014; 12 (3): 436–442. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2014.027
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