121 Microbiological research https://doi.org/10.12980/apjtd.7.2017D6-380 ©2017 by the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease. All rights reserved. Assessment of the prevalence of enteric viruses in the final effluents of two peri-urban wastewater treatment plants Onele Gcilitshana 1* , Timothy Sibanda 2 , Leorcadia Zhou 3 , Anthony Ifeayin Okoh 1 1 Applied and Environmental Microbiology Research Group, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa 2 Department of Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa, Florida Campus, P.O. Box 1710, Gauteng, South Africa 3 Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Centre, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa Asian Pac J Trop Dis 2017; 7(2): 121-126 Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease journal homepage: http://www.apjtcm.com *Corresponding author: Onele Gcilitshana, Applied and Environmental Microbiology Research Group, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Tel: +27 (0) 786157699 E-mail: ogcilitshana@ufh.ac.za The journal implements double-blind peer review practiced by specially invited international editorial board members. 1. Introduction As of the year 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that some 1.1 billion people did not have access to safe drinking water, and a further 2.6 billion did not have proper sanitation, a position that unfortunately has not been significantly improved[1]. According to the WHO, morbidity and mortality related to diarrheal diseases can only be drastically lowered if the global citizenry could have access to safe water and sanitation[1]. However, this has remained a far-fetched dream especially among developing countries and some developed but water-scarce countries like South Africa that may soon have to resort to water recycling to counter water scarcity problems[2]. What worsens water woes in many countries is the unabated pollution of the already over-exploited water sources by inadequately treated wastewater effluents among other pollutants[3]. With a ballooning global human population, disposal of sewage waste is increasingly becoming a major problem. Disposal of raw or partially treated sewage effluents leads to water-related illnesses such as diarrhea that reportedly kills 3–4 million children each year, and WHO has predicted that water-related diseases could kill 135 million people ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the prevalence of enteric viruses in the final effluents of two peri-urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa from September 2012 to August 2013. Methods: Water samples were collected monthly from the final effluents of the selected WWTPs (WWTP-K and WWTP-R) located in Komga and East London, respectively in Amathole District Municipality for a period of 12 months between September 2012 and August 2013. RT- PCR was used for the detection of adenoviruses (AdV), rotaviruses and hepatitis A virus while conventional PCR was used to delineate all detected viruses into their serotypes using specific primer sets. Results: None of the viruses were detected in samples from WWTP-R. In effluent samples from WWTP-K, rotaviruses were detected in 58% (7/12) of the samples in concentrations ranging from 1.7 × 10 4 to 2.3 × 10 6 genome copies/L while AdV and hepatitis A virus were detected in 17% (2/12) of the samples in concentrations ranging from 4.5 × 10 to 2.8 × 10 2 and 2.3 × 10 to 7.1 × 10 genome copies/L, respectively. Molecular characterization of AdV positive samples showed the presence of species B, species C and species F (AdV41) from the May and June 2013 samples. Conclusions: Detection of enteric viruses in final effluents reflects the inability of WWTPs to completely remove viruses from final effluents and the likelihood of contaminating receiving watersheds with potentially virulent viral particles, which may pose a serious health risk to people directly utilizing such water either for consumption or full contact purposes. Article history: Received 19 Oct 2016 Received in revised form 15 Nov, 2nd revised form 16 Nov 2016 Accepted 14 Dec 2016 Available online 23 Dec 2016 Keywords: Wastewater Enteric viruses PCR Health risk Receiving watershed