VirWaTest, a point-of-use method for the detection of viruses in water samples

Abstract

Viruses excreted by humans and animals may contaminate water sources and pose a risk to human health when this water is used for drinking,food irrigation, washing, etc. The classical fecal bacteria indicator does not always check for the presence of viral pathogens so the detection ofviral pathogens and viral indicators is relevant in order to adopt measures of risk mitigation, especially in humanitarian scenarios and in areaswhere water-borne viral outbreaks are frequent.At present, several commercial tests allowing the quantification of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) are available for testing at the point of use.However, such commercial tests are not available for the detection of viruses. The detection of viruses in environmental water samples requiresconcentrating several liters into smaller volumes. Moreover, once concentrated, the detection of viruses relies on methods such as nucleic acidextraction and molecular detection (e.g., polymerase chain reaction [PCR]-based assays) of the viral genomes.The method described here allows the concentration of viruses from 10 L water samples, as well as the extraction of viral nucleic acids at thepoint of use, with simple and portable equipment. This allows the testing of water samples at the point of use for several viruses and is useful inhumanitarian scenarios, as well as at any context where an equipped laboratory is not available. Alternatively, the method allows concentratingviruses present in water samples and the shipping of the concentrate to a laboratory at room temperature for further analysis