Assessment of different methods to remove organic inhibitors in order to create a sensitive method for direct surveillance of enteroviral infectious diseases in sewage specimens

Enteroviruses in sewage are considered among the most sensitive indicators for virus circulation in society. These are mainly detected by sensitive cell cultures, however, since it is time consuming, molecular direct methods have also been considered as sensitive techniques. This study accomplished to assess different methods of removing organic inhibitors of sewage in order to detect Enteroviruses with RT-PCR.

For this cross sectional study, 63 sewage specimens of Tehran were prepared with Grab sample method and concentrated with Pellet and Two-Phase methods and cultured in RD and Hep-2 cells. Then, with 12 different methods, removing organic inhibitors in sewage with RT-PCR method was assessed.

Of investigated methods, we succeeded to isolate all of expected viruses only with the use of ICC-RT-PCR method. 

With respect to 0.01 TCID50 sensitivity of ICC-RT-PCR method, further studies are strongly recommended in order to confirm the utility of this method as one of the most sensitive methods of detecting Enteroviruses.