Disinfection of Ebola Virus in Sterilized Municipal Wastewater.
Concerns have been raised regarding handling of Ebola virus contaminated wastewater, as well as the adequacy of proposed disinfection approaches. In the current study, we investigate the inactivation of Ebola virus in sterilized domestic wastewater utilizing sodium hypochlorite addition and pH adjustment. No viral inactivation was observed in the one-hour tests without sodium hypochlorite addition or pH adjustment. No virus was recovered after 20 seconds (i.e. 4.2 log10 unit inactivation to detection limit) following the addition of 5 and 10 mg L-1 sodium hypochlorite, which resulted in immediate free chlorine residuals of 0.52 and 1.11 mg L-1, respectively. The addition of 1 mg L-1 sodium hypochlorite resulted in an immediate free chlorine residual of 0.16 mg L-1, which inactivated 3.5 log10 units of Ebola virus in 20 seconds. Further inactivation was not evident due to the rapid consumption of the chlorine residual. Elevating the pH to 11.2 was found to significantly increase viral decay over ambient conditions. These results indicate the high susceptibility of the enveloped Ebola virus to disinfection in the presence of free chlorine in municipal wastewater; however, we caution that extension to more complex matrices (e.g. bodily fluids) will require additional verification.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.|Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Kyle
0000-0003-3142-6090
K
Bibby
Laboratory of Virology, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
Robert J
RJ
Fischer
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Leonard W
LW
Casson
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Nathalia Aquino
NA
de Carvalho
Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Charles N
CN
Haas
Laboratory of Virology, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America.
Vincent J
VJ
Munster
D002713:Chlorine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004203:Disinfection / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D029043:Ebolavirus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D012973:Sodium Hypochlorite / Q000494:pharmacology*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry / Q000821:virology*; D018508:Water Purification
D002713:Chlorine; D004202:Disinfectants; D012973:Sodium Hypochlorite; D062065:Wastewater