Mechanisms of Inactivation of Hepatitis A Virus in Water by Chlorine Dioxide

In this study, to elucidate the mechanisms of inactivation of hepatitis A virus (HAV) by chlorine dioxide, cell culture, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and long-overlapping RT-PCR were used to detect the infectivity, antigenicity, and entire genome of HAV before and after disinfection. The results revealed the complete inactivation of infectivity after a 10-min exposure to 7.5mg of chlorine dioxide per liter; and the highest level of sensitivity in the 5'non-translated regions (5'NTR) (the sequence from bp 1 to 671), inactivation of which took as much time as the inactivation of infectivity of HAV by chlorine dioxide; the complete destruction of antigenicity after a 10-min exposure to 7.5mg of chlorine dioxide per liter. It is suggested that the inactivation mechanism of HAV by chlorine dioxide was due to the loss of the 5'NTR and/or destruction of the antigenicity, which is not similar to that of chlorine (Appl Environ Microbiol 68: 4951).