ABSTRACT
Many problems are posed by viral contamination of environmental water because of the risks of human contamination through swimming, consumption of contaminated sea food, and deficient treatment of tapwater. Contamination of environmental waters consists of two contradictory phenomena: the discharge of feces containing virus into our environment via wastewater, and the dispersion and the inactivation of viruses, they being obligate parasites which cannot multiply in water. The principal source of water contamination by viruses is, of course, sewage. Distilled water, tapwater, and synthetic sterile seawater are less inactivating than sewage, surface water, or seawater. Biological inactivation is one of the most important factors in virus survival. The viral concentrations found in wastewater after biological treatment are relatively high because wastewater treatment plants were never intended to eliminate viral micropopulation. Other mechanisms by which viruses are inactivated in environmental waters are capsid and/or nucleic acid damage from physical, chemical, or biochemical origin.
