Waterborne gastroenteritis outbreak in Albania

Abstract

Three different studies are reported concerning the environmental pollution caused by viruses in Albania. The first study describes an outbreak of gastroenteritis in the capital city, involving 2,722 children attending the Paediatric Unit of Tirana Hospital. The age group with the highest morbidity was 0-5 years, with 89.5%; no fatalities were recorded during the outbreak. Rotavirus was detected in 26/28 faecal samples by RT-PCR, although astrovirus, adenovirus and calicivirus were also present. The second study describes an outbreak of hepatitis A virus involving the city of Lac. Two hundred cases were recorded, with the highest incidence in the age-group 5-9 years. Phylogenetic analysis of the VP1/2A region showed the presence of a unique sequence: genotype IA. Rotavirus was identified in drinking-water samples collected during the outbreak. The third study describes the prevalence of HAV and HEV in 202 sera randomly collected from 12 different cities in Albania. HAV showed a high incidence (66.2%), whereas none was positive for HEV. The genomic analysis of the VP1/2A junction revealed the presence of only one genotype (IA) with few point mutations and just two amino acid substitutions at codons 22 and 34. Additionally, two potential antigenic variants were detected, the first at position 46 of VP3 and the second at position 23 of VP1.

Molecular Detection and Characterization of Gastroenteritis Viruses Occurring Naturally in the Stream Waters of Manaus, Central Amazônia, Brazil

“…These findings indicate the gastroenteritis burden of pathogenic viruses present in the water, due to the use of river water for drinking or due to other routes of transmission, such as poor hygiene, lack of sanitation, or even contamination due to recreational activities such as bathing in these areas. Studies showing viral diarrheal illness due to waterborne transmission related to poor water quality have been documented, including the ingestion of contaminated water during body contact recreation (22,26,31,38,52). In addition, the detection and characterization of HAdV, RV, HAstV, and NoV in environmental water samples may provide potentially useful data for epidemiological studies.…”

One-year monthly survey of rotavirus, astrovirus and norovirus in three sewage treatment plants in Beijing, China and associated health risk assessment

“…Outbreaks of viral acute gastroenteritis by consumption of contaminated water have been frequently reported in the world, and viruses are known as the etiological agents for the infectious gastroenteritis (Divizia et al 2004). While rotaviruses, astrovirus, and norovirus have been involved in these outbreaks (Hung et al 1984;Boccia et al 2002;Divizia et al 2004;Hoebe et al 2004;Gallay et al 2006;Hewitt et al 2007;Martinelli et al 2007;Maunula et al 2009), routine procedures for monitoring these viruses in water samples had not been drawn up for the water-microbiology screening panel. Sewage water contains much higher numbers of viruses (Meleg et al 2006) and sewage workers frequently exposed to raw sewage were found to be at higher risk of intestinal disease (Rylander 1999;Venczel et al 2003).…”

Prevalence and genotyping of human isolates of Giardia duodenalis from Albania

“…Causes of diarrhoea include a wide array of bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Recent studies on microbiological and virological environmental pollution identified the quality of drinking water as a major health problem in the suburbs of the Albanian capital [3][4][5]. Among protozoan parasites, Giardia duodenalis is recognised as one of the most important non-viral infectious agent causing diarrhoeal illness in humans world-wide [6,7].…”