Presence of enteroviruses in recreational water in Wuhan, China

Contaminated recreational waters pose a public health concern, as the potential for waterborne diseases exists in water contaminated with human fecal waste. Worldwide, bacterial indicators such as Escherichia coli, enterococci, and total and fecal coliform are used as indicators of water quality. However, enteric viruses also present a public health concern and their presence cannot always be determined based on bacterial indicators. This study explores the use of molecular detection methods of enteric viruses as indicators of fecal contamination. Four viruses, enterovirus, norovirus genogroups I and II, and male-specific FRNA coliphage, were tested in this study. Highly sensitive RT-PCR methods developed at the University of Hawaii at Manoa were utilized to evaluate environmental samples collected from three lakes in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Sixteen of twenty-five sites tested positive for at least one virus. Enterovirus was the most commonly detected virus, followed by norovirus genogroup I. These findings support the use of molecular detection methods to test for enteric virus presence in recreational freshwater sources in China as alternative water quality indicators, and utilize recently developed, highly sensitive methods of detection of these viruses. In addition, these findings suggest that there is substantial fecal contamination of the three lakes tested in this study.