Detection and Molecular Characterization of Hepatitis A Virus from Tunisian Wastewater Treatment Plants with Different Secondary Treatments.
Imen OuardaniSyrine TurkiMahjoub AouniJesús Ángel López RomaldePublished in: Applied and environmental microbiology (2016)
This report provides important data on the incidence, behavior, seasonality, and genotype distribution of HAV in the environment in Tunisia, as well as the risk of infection derived from its occurrence in effluents due to inadequate wastewater treatment. In addition, these findings seem to confirm that the prevalence of HAV depends on socioeconomic level, sanitary conditions in the communities, sewage facilities, the locality, and the climate. The wide dispersion of HAV in effluents proves the inefficacity of the current wastewater treatment processes used in Tunisia to remove virus; therefore, establishment of tertiary treatment processes or replacement of the medium-charge activated sludge (conventional activated sludge) by the low-charge version (oxidation ditch activated sludge) is absolutely needed. Rapid detection of the HAV genome in wastewater may provide a timely warning sign to health authorities to implement population protection measures.
Keyphrases
- wastewater treatment
- antibiotic resistance genes
- risk factors
- healthcare
- risk assessment
- mental health
- electronic health record
- solar cells
- hydrogen peroxide
- big data
- genome wide
- health information
- gene expression
- human health
- nitric oxide
- microbial community
- deep learning
- machine learning
- data analysis
- real time pcr
- disease virus