Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 May 8;11(5):424.
doi: 10.3390/v11050424.

Environmental Surveillance for Poliovirus and Other Enteroviruses: Long-Term Experience in Moscow, Russian Federation, 2004⁻2017

Olga E Ivanova  1   2 , Maria S Yarmolskaya  3 , Tatiana P Eremeeva  4 , Galina M Babkina  5 , Olga Y Baykova  6 , Lyudmila V Akhmadishina  7 , Alexandr Y Krasota  8   9 , Liubov I Kozlovskaya  10   7 , Alexander N Lukashev  11
Affiliations

Environmental Surveillance for Poliovirus and Other Enteroviruses: Long-Term Experience in Moscow, Russian Federation, 2004⁻2017

Olga E Ivanova et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Polio and enterovirus surveillance may include a number of approaches, including incidence-based observation, a sentinel physician system, environmental monitoring and acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance. The relative value of these methods is widely debated. Here we summarized the results of 14 years of environmental surveillance at four sewage treatment plants of various capacities in Moscow, Russia. A total of 5450 samples were screened, yielding 1089 (20.0%) positive samples. There were 1168 viruses isolated including types 1-3 polioviruses (43%) and 29 different types of non-polio enteroviruses (51%). Despite using the same methodology, a significant variation in detection rates was observed between the treatment plants and within the same facility over time. The number of poliovirus isolates obtained from sewage was roughly 60 times higher than from AFP surveillance over the same time frame. All except one poliovirus isolate were Sabin-like polioviruses. The one isolate was vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 with 17.6% difference from the corresponding Sabin strain, suggesting long-term circulation outside the scope of the surveillance. For some non-polio enterovirus types (e.g., Echovirus 6) there was a good correlation between detection in sewage and incidence of clinical cases in a given year, while other types (e.g., Echovirus 30) could cause large outbreaks and be almost absent in sewage samples. Therefore, sewage monitoring can be an important part of enterovirus surveillance, but cannot substitute other approaches.

Keywords: Enterovirus; enterovirus surveillance; environmental surveillance; poliovirus; sewage.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location, throughput, and population in the catchment area of Moscow sewage treatment plants (TP).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Seasonal frequency of isolation of enteroviruses (%) from sewage, Moscow, 2004–2017.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Annual ratio of polio and non-polio enteroviruses in sewage samples, Moscow, 2004–2017. NTV—non-typed virus, NPEV—non-polio enterovirus, PV—poliovirus.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Average monthly isolation of polio and non-polio enteroviruses in sewage samples, Moscow, 2004–2017. NTVs are not included in the NPEV count.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Spectrum of NPEV isolated from sewage and from cases of aseptic meningitis, Moscow, 2008–2017.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The dynamics of isolation of E6 and E30 from sewage and from cases of aseptic meningitis in Moscow, 2008–2017, by year.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Asghar H., Diop O.M., Weldegebriel G., Malik F., Shetty S., El Bassioni L., Akande A.O., Al Maamoun E., Zaidi S., Adeniji A.J., et al. Environmental Surveillance for Polioviruses in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. J. Infect. Dis. 2014;210:294–303. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiu384. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Duintjer Tebbens R.J., Zimmermann M., Pallansch M.A., Thompson K.M. Insights from a Systematic Search for Information on Designs, Costs, and Effectiveness of Poliovirus Environmental Surveillance Systems. Food Environ. Virol. 2017;9:361–382. doi: 10.1007/s12560-017-9314-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hovi T., Shulman L.M., van der Avoort H., Deshpande J., Roivainen M., de Gourville E.M. Role of environmental poliovirus surveillance in global polio eradication and beyond. Epidemiol. Infect. 2012;140:1–13. doi: 10.1017/S095026881000316X. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Benschop K.S.M., van der Avoort H.G., Jusic E., Vennema H., van Binnendijk R., Duizer E. Polio and measles down the drain: Environmental enterovirus surveillance in the Netherlands, 2005 to 2015. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2017;83 doi: 10.1128/AEM.00558-17. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Blomqvist S., El Bassioni L., Nasr E.M.E.M., Paananen A., Kaijalainen S., Asghar H., De Gourville E., Roivainen M. Detection of Imported Wild Polioviruses and of Vaccine-Derived Polioviruses by Environmental Surveillance in Egypt. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2012;78:5406–5409. doi: 10.1128/AEM.00491-12. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources