Isolation of viruses from sewage, with special regard to poliovirus: an evaluation of the sensitivity of three tissue culture methods.

This report concerns experiments to isolate different viruses from sewage. Using a special cell-line from Utrecht, derived from human amniotic cells, it was possible to isolate poliovirus selectively when antisera against six types of coxsackievirus B were added to the tissue culture. The method was tested in connexion with the epidemiological investigation of a case of poliomyelitis in Sweden in 1977. It rapidly demonstrated that the virus implicated was present in all neighbouring sewage plants, indicating a wide distribution of the virus in the area.