Examination for hepatitis E virus in wastewater treatment plants and workers by nested RT-PCR and ELISA.
Water and sera were collected from 4 sewage treatment plants whose workers were exposed to raw untreated sewage samples, which may accumulate the HEV virus. Two methods of water concentration were used (PEG and U-APB) and samples analyzed by nested RT-PCR. The 24 samples (inlet and outlet) of sewage treatment plants were negative for virus. HEV IgG was detected in 205 workers sera, the age of 20-40 years old, exhibited the highest HEV IgG infection (50.9% - 50.4), between 41-50 and 51-60 years old were lower and almost the same (43.2%, 46.2%, respectively). The highest infections between workers were in Balaks sewage treatment plant, and the persistence of HEV IgG was until 60 years old.
El-Esnawy
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Environmental Virology Lab., Department of Water Pollution Research, National Research Center, 12311 Dokki-Cairo, Egypt. nesnawy@mailcity.com
D000328:Adult; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012722:Sewage / Q000821:virology*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid
D012722:Sewage