Hepatitis A virus in environmental water samples from the Amazon Basin.
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.
De Paula
V S
VS
Department of Virology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz/ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. vdepaula@ioc.fiocruz.br
Diniz-Mendes
L
L
Villar
L M
LM
Luz
S L B
SL
Silva
L A
LA
Jesus
M S
MS
da Silva
N M V S
NM
Gaspar
A M C
AM
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
C096539:VP1 protein, hepatitis A virus; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins