Water Seminar - Human Enteric Viruses

November 3, 3:00pm - 4:15pm
Mānoa Campus, HIG 110 Add to Calendar

Human Enteric Viruses – An Alternative Indicator for Recreational Water Quality Monitoring?

By Yuanan Lu, PhD, Professor, Director of Environmental Health Laboratory, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Hawaii

Coastal water is subject to contamination with a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms, which presents a major health risk to recreational water users. The current use of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) for water quality monitoring has limitations for swimmer protection. These fecal bacteria are known to persist and grow in the environment, which biases assessment, especially in tropical regions like Hawaii. Also there is a lack of direct association between FIB and human diseases since FIB are not human pathogens. Enteric viruses are therefore currently being considered as an alternative indicator because they do not multiply in the environment and they are the main cause of water-borne gastroenteristis. However, the extremely low numbers of enteric viral pathogens generally found in water has been the major challenge for their use as a valid bioindicator. To address this challenge, our present study focuses on the establishment of highly effective laboratory protocols for viral concentration from environmental waters, and highly sensitive laboratory techniques for enhanced viral detection and health risk assessment. Several human enteric viruses including norovirus, adenovirus and enterovirus are the particular focus of this study. Experimental data from this study support the notion of possible use of enteric viral pathogens for environmental water monitoring. In addition, a survey of human enteric viruses in samples taken from 18 different sites around Oahu suggests that human sewage contamination is more serious than previously suspected in Hawaiian recreational waters. Therefore, future surveillance of enteric virus contamination using the newly established viral detection methods is strongly recommended to ensure safe use of Hawaiian recreational waters.


Event Sponsor
Water Resources Research Center, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Philip Moravcik, 956-3097, morav@hawaii.edu, http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/seminars.php

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