| Abstract: | 人類腺病毒 (HAdV) 是引發數種腸胃炎、結膜炎、呼吸道疾病、膀胱炎、神經系統及性病的病原體，因為會透過水媒介傳播而引起潛在的健康風險，它們常被認定為危險的新興病毒，也因此美國環保局將它們列入第一及第二份污染物候選清單 (CCL 1和CCL 2) 中，與HAdVs相關的流行感染爆發事件全球皆有所聞，臺灣地區爆發HAdVs流行感染也相當瀕繁，造成相當可觀的社會成本損失。因為HAdVs和其它致病病毒類似具有感染劑量低、及水中存活性佳、及健康為害嚴重 (從腹瀉到死亡) 的特性，HAdVs在環境中的多樣性及分佈已吸引很多科學界的注意，近來HAdVs發生在臺灣地區北部及南部自然水體 (如河流、溫泉、及海水等) 中的調查已有部份的研究，結果顯示HAdVs明顯存在這些檢測水體中，數種HAdVs血清型曾這些水樣中檢測出，然而、整個臺灣地區 (包括多數人口密集的中大型城市) 水體環境之HAdVs的資料尚未建立的很完整。正當部份分子生物技術已被廣範應用在環境微生物及病毒之研究，HAdVs存在水體環境的情形可利用病毒基因克隆序列資料庫的親源關係比較進行血清型的判斷。曾有研究指出不同血清型的HAdV有相當不一樣的地理分佈及相對毒力，因此、隨著社會大眾對個人安全及健康的意識逐漸崛起，鑑定HAdV的血清型不止對醫療檢體有其重要性，對環境樣品亦然。本計畫之首要任務在於研究整個臺灣地區 (包括幾個北部、中部、南部、及東部的典型城市) 民生廢水中的HAdV的多樣性及分佈情形，計畫主要目標為取得全臺灣HAdV的地理親源資料，提供環境工程師及廢水處理操作人員和操作策略決策者進一步HAdV的資料，以做為決定達到水質安全標準所須處理的目標污染物之參考，在處理過的水有必要再利用以解決水資源逐漸匱乏的問題時，確定再利用水的水質安全尤其相當重要。
Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are etiologic agents for numerous clinical diseases including gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, respiratory illness, cystitis, neurologic and venereal diseases. They have been considered as critical emerging viruses due to potential health risks associated with their waterborne transmission; and therefore, have been included in the contaminant candidate list I and II (i.e., CCL1 of 1998 and CCL2 of 2003) of the U.S. EPA. Waterborne outbreaks related to HAdVs have been documented worldwide. In Taiwan, HAdV outbreaks also have occurred frequently resulting in significant social costs for these public health issues. Like other pathogenic viruses, the HAdVs diversity and distribution in environments have attracted much attention of scientific community worldwide because of their low infectious dose, survival in water, and substantial health impacts (from diarrhea to death). Recently, several surveys on HAdVs occurrences in natural water bodies (e.g., river, hot spring, and sea water) have also been conducted for some northern and southern Taiwan areas. Current results suggest presences of HAdVs in such natural water bodies are notable. Several HAdV serotypes (e.g., HAdV 2, 3, 4, 7, 19, 37, 40, 41, etc.) have been identified in the water samples. However, a filled database about HAdV presents in environmental waters for entire Taiwan area (including most of metropolitans) has not been well established. As some molecular technologies have been widely used to study environmental microbiology and virology, HAdV presents in environmental waters can be determined by setting up clone libraries for viral genetic information and further analyzing/confirming phylogenetic relationship. It has been suggested that different HAdV serotypes have quite different geographical distribution and related virulence. HAdV serotype identification has become significant not only for clinical specimens but also for environmental samples on account of rising public awareness among personal safe and health. The foremost task of this project is to conduct an overall survey for HAdV diversity and distribution in sewage waters of whole Taiwan area (i.e., including few typical urban cities in northern, middle, southern, and eastern Taiwan areas). The objective is to gain prevalent information that would potentially illustrate insight of HAdV phylo-geographical occurrences within the water environments of Taiwan area. This would provide strategy maker, environmental engineer, or operator of wastewater treatment plant with further essential information about what pathogenic target needs to be removed in order to meet typical safe water criterion. This is especially important while water-reuse is required to solve the growing problems in reduce of water resources. |
