• Sapovirus isolates in untreated and treated wastewater; A serious public health issue
  • Paria Barooni,1 Seyed Reza Mohebbi,2,* Seyed Masoud Hosseini,3 Seyed Mahdi Hosseinian,4 Shabnam Kazemian,5 Hamid Asadzadeh-Aghdaei,6
    1. Department of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
    2. Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
    3. Department of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
    4. Department of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
    5. Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
    6. Basic and Molecular Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Disorders Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Waterborne enteric viruses are the emerging cause of acute gastroenteritis outbreaks and a major threat to global public health. These enteric viruses may originate from human sewage and are rapidly transmitted in aquatic environments. Sapoviruses (SaVs) and Noroviruses are the most common agents of gastroenteritis which are members of the Caliciviridae family. In general, SaV has 19 genogroups, which genogroups GI, GII, GIV, and GV are only found in humans. The clinical symptoms of SaV infection are similar to those of other enteric viruses, which include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain, and usually disappear within a week. SaVs can spread from person to person through sewage infiltration into drinking water sources and in contaminated food.
  • Methods: We searched for articles that were related to the presence of SaVs in water matrices in Scopus, ScienceDirect, and PubMed databases.
  • Results: The presence of SaV varies from 48% to 100% and 4% to 58% in treated and untreated wastewater, respectively. This suggests that wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are failing to completely remove the virus before discharge. This reaffirms the inefficient operation of several WWTPs around the world, which has an effect on water sources downstream of the WWTPs. According to prior studies, genogroup I (GI) was the most prevalent genogroup. GI.1 and GI.2 were also the most predominant genotypes.
  • Conclusion: This study has provided useful information on the presence of SaVs in water sources affected by deficient WWTWs in various nations. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that clinically relevant SaV strains may be circulating in various water sources. Due to the low infectious dose of enteric viruses, high titers of pathogens such as SaV in insufficiently treated discharged wastewater may have a significant impact on the health of those who use the water for household, recreational, or agricultural purposes. For precise risk management, it is crucial to monitor and identify the source of enteric viruses in ambient waters.
  • Keywords: Sapovirus, Wastewater, Enteric viruses, Diarrhea, Acute gastroenteritis