NoPHAME · Novel PHAge MEthods for improved virus inactivation

Novel PHAge MEthods for improved virus inactivation

Infectious diseases can be spread through respiratory transmission (e.g. a sneeze spreading the common cold) or faecal-oral transmission (infected cook in restaurant uses a toilet without handwashing, contaminants food and the diners get infected). Diseases caused by faecal-orally transmitted viruses are major causes of illness globally. Infected individuals can produce and shed huge quantities of viruses into the sewage systems. Most of these viruses are very stable and can survive in sewage or on surfaces (e.g. door knobs) for days to months. Consumption of contaminated water or vegetables fertilized with contaminated water can lead to broad spread of the infections. Particularly, diarrhoea from contaminated drinking water causes more than 500,000 deaths annually, according to World Health Organization (WHO). Additionally, more than 2 billion people drink contaminated water daily and 2.4 billion lack access to safe toilets, resulting in further contamination of the water. While the burden of such diseases is higher in poorer countries, the safety of our water supply is challenged everywhere by rapid population growth, challenging the capacity of sewage treatment systems and resulting in increasing environmental pollution. Therefore, removal or inactivation of illness-causing viruses during wastewater treatment is a global issue. Diseases due to consuming contaminated water are preventable and the resulting deaths can be avoided. Because bacteria and protozoa are large and easy to detect, there are good methods for the removal of bacteria and protozoa. Methods for virus removal or inactivation is less advanced. The project develops the use of bacteriophages (viruses of bacteria) as powerful tools to monitor and improve virus inactivation and removal, resulting in cleaner and safer water. The novelty of this study is the combination of virology, metagenomics, deep sequencing, bioinformatics, and classical microbiology. In this fellowship, I have developed better systems to assess virus inactivation methods during wastewater treatment, through two objectives: (1) Identification of useful phages as markers or surrogates for pathogenic viruses; and (2) Development of phage replication assays to measure and quantify the phages during processing.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз