Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:39:19.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Poliovirus surveillance by examining sewage specimens. Quantitative recovery of virus after introduction into sewerage at remote upstream location

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2001

T. HOVI ,
M. STENVIK ,
H. PARTANEN  and
A. KANGAS
T. HOVI
Affiliation:
Enterovirus Laboratory, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Poliomyelitis, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Helsinki, Finland
M. STENVIK
Affiliation:
Enterovirus Laboratory, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Poliomyelitis, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Helsinki, Finland
H. PARTANEN
Affiliation:
Enterovirus Laboratory, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Poliomyelitis, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Helsinki, Finland
A. KANGAS
Affiliation:
Helsinki Water, City of Helsinki, Finland
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In order to assess the feasibility of environmental poliovirus surveillance, known amounts of poliovirus type 1, strain Sabin, were flushed into the sewage network of Helsinki. Grab specimens collected at a remote downstream location and concentrated about a 100-fold revealed infectious poliovirus on four successive days in all three separate experiments. As for concentration, a simple two-phase separation method was found to be at least as useful as a several-fold more resource-demanding polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation method. Recovery of the introduced virus was remarkably high (more than 10%). Using the current system, it might be possible to detect poliovirus circulation in a population of 700 000 people by examining a single 400 ml sewage specimen, if 1 out of 10000 inhabitants were excreting the virus. It is concluded that environmental surveillance is a sensitive approach to monitor silent poliovirus circulation in populations served by a sewage network.

Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology & Infection , Volume 127 , Issue 1 , August 2001 , pp. 101 - 106
Copyright
2001 Cambridge University Press