Study on inactivation kinetics of hepatitis A virus and enteroviruses with peracetic acid and chlorine. New ICC/PCR method to assess disinfection effectiveness.

The virucidal activity of chlorine-compounds was studied using hepatitis A virus (HAV) and Poliovirus 2 and comparing the disinfectant efficiency of peracetic acid. HAV presented a higher resistance to HClO than Poliovirus did. With ClO2 the inactivation times of HAV were markedly shorter. A comparison between these data and those resulting from the kinetics with peracetic acid (PA) showed that PA is less effective than chlorine. As a preliminary to future research, the PCR-test integrated with cell-cultures was experimentally introduced for a quick evaluation of the HAV-infectiveness, with the aim of possible application in the field of disinfection and of viruses-isolation from environmental and food samples.