Detection of infectious pathogenic viruses in water and wastewater samples from urbanised areas

Regardless of the remarkable improvement in sanitary conditions in urbanised areas, infectious diseases caused by pathogenic viruses in water have been reported year after year. The actual situation for the behaviour of pathogenic viruses in urbanised society should be understood. In this study, infectious enteroviruses and adenoviruses in water and wastewater samples from urbanised areas were investigated. Infectious enteroviruses were continuously detected from sewage and sewage sludge during the summer season. The detection of infectious viruses in sewage and sewage sludge was facilitated by the enzymatic virus elution (EVE) method. The concentration of infectious enteroviruses in positive samples of sewage and sewage sludge was >400 virions/L. Infectious viruses were also detected from water samples at levels >4 virions/L.