Virus entéricos en Ambientes Acuáticos: Métodos De Concentración y detección

Human enteric viruses have been recognized as major infectious agents involved in numerous waterborne outbreaks worldwide. Detection of these pathogens in aquatic environments is therefore extremely important to safeguard public health. Current approaches for detection of waterborne enteric viruses involve three basic steps: primary concentration through membrane filtration, secondary concentration through centrifugation, and detection through molecular and cell culture methods. New strategies for concentration of viral particles and improvements in molecular detection methods have revealed not only the most frequent genotypes involved in human disease but also new and emerging waterborne viruses. Although the cell culture assay is the gold standard for isolation of waterborne infectious viruses, new quantitative molecular amplification assays are being more frequently used for detection of cultivable and noncultivable enteric viruses. The advantages and disadvantages of current and alternative detection methods are discussed in this paper.