title: Hepatitis A virus in environmental water samples from the Amazon Basin.
abstract: Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a significant waterborne human pathogen. Of the global supply of potable water, Brazil retains 13%, of which 75% resides in the Amazon Basin. Although hepatitis A morbidity has declined progressively in Brazil as a whole, it remains high in the Amazon region. We used nested and real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect and quantify the viral load in water samples from the Amazon Basin. Most samples tested positive (92%), with viral loads varying from 60 to 5500 copies /L, depending on sanitary conditions and the degree of flooding. Nested RT-PCR of the VP1-2A region detected HAV RNA in 23% of the samples. In low viral load samples, HAV was detected only with real-time RT-PCR, suggesting that this technique is useful for monitoring HAV contamination. The presence of HAV in water samples constitutes a serious public health problem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz/ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. vdepaula@ioc.fiocruz.br
authors.forename: V S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: De Paula
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Diniz-Mendes
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Villar
authors.forename: S L B
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Luz
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Jesus
authors.forename: N M V S
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: A M C
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gaspar
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D030041:Hepatitis A virus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: C096539:VP1 protein, hepatitis A virus; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins