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QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR METHODS TO DETECT HUMAN ENTERIC VIRUSES IN DRINKING WATER
Citation:
Fout, G S. QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR METHODS TO DETECT HUMAN ENTERIC VIRUSES IN DRINKING WATER. Presented at Symposium on Viruses in Drinking Water, Seoul, Korea, October 6-14, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
Overarching Objectives and Links to Multi-Year Planning
This task directly supports the 2003 Drinking Water Research Program Multi-Year Plan's long term goal 1 for "regulated contaminants" and long term goal 2 for "unregulated contaminants and innovative approaches" under GRPA Goal 2 (Clean and Safe Water). The overarching objective is to provide the Office of Water, Agency risk assessors and managers, academics, the scientific community, state regulators, water industry and industry spokes-groups the methods they need to measure occurrence of waterborne viral pathogens. The methods developed will improve the quality of risk-based assessments and tools used by the Agency to set regulations, policies and priorities for protecting human health and will allow the Agency to assure the public that the appropriate methods are being used to demonstrate that drinking water is safe from pathogenic agents.
Specific Subtask Objectives:
o Evaluate techniques for enhancement of growth of human enteric viruses in support of CCL #2 and #3 and for use in the UCMR (Subtask A; to be completed by 9/05 in support of LTG 2)
o Develop a multiplex RT-PCR method that incorporates internal controls for use in the UCMR (Subtask B; completed 9/03 in support of LTG 2)
o Develop and evaluate new molecular technologies for use in the UCMR. Included will be real-time RT-PCR methods for Norwalk virus and astroviruses, and integrated cell culture/molecular procedures for detection of infectious viruses (Subtask B; to be completed by 9/05 in support of LTG 2)
Description:
Surface or groundwaters impacted by untreated or inadequately treated domestic wastes may contain human pathogenic viruses that cause hepatitis, gastroenteritis, meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis, diabetes, conjunctivitis and temporary or permanent paralysis. These viruses can and do cause outbreaks of waterborne disease. Of the 647 waterborne outbreaks that occurred in the U.S. between 1971 and 1996, 370 or 57 percent, involving 51,233 cases of illness, were caused by viruses or assumed to be caused by viruses. However, the disease burden to a community is generaly considered to be much higher than the number from reported outbreaks. Better estimates of the disease burden are needed in order to adequately protect the public. The use of occurrence studies is a common way to provide a better estimate.
The most widely used method to perform occurrence studies on human enteric viruses in surface or drinking waters is the standard total culturable virus assay. This method detects a number of virus types that are endemic in many communities. Molecular methods have also been developed to detect these and other virus types that cause waterborne disease. All standard and molecular assays can generate false positive and false negative results. Minimizing these false results requires a good laboratory quality assurance program. The minimum quality assurance procedures that should be used with virus monitoring methods will be described.