Abstract
In this study, the relevance of the presence of Escherichia coli in drinking water as an indicator of point-of-use chlorination efficiency is examined. The survival of clinical isolates of human enteric pathogenic bacteria ( Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Shigella dysenteriae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis and Vibrio cholerae ) as well as E. coli was monitored as a function of effective germicidal concentration and contact time. The inactivation kinetics indicated that the minimum effective dose for three-log units (99.9%) inactivation of E. coli (C·T99.9% = 10 mgl -1 -min) can sufficiently eliminate the other pathogens (C·T99.9% ranged from 5.6–10.5 mgl -1 -min); the exception being K. pneumoniae , which required more than 1.4-times higher dose. In general, the results implied that the branded hypochlorite solution should effectively inactivate almost all vegetative bacteria in household drinking water at the manufacturer’s recommended dosage of 0.5 mgl -1 after at least 30 minutes contact time. The application of point-of-use chemical disinfectants to drinking water in households will significantly reduce the incidence of water-borne infections particularly in rural communities where central treatment of water is mostly unavailable. Keywords : Effective dose; Point-of-use disinfectants; Indicator bacteria; Pathogen; Escherichia coli; Chlorination
Highlights
ObjectivesThe objective of this work was to evaluate the validity of using E. coli as indicator of the efficiency of point-of-use chlorine-based disinfection of drinking water
Bacteria: Clinical isolates of human enteric pathogenic bacteria Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Shigella dysenteriae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis and Vibrio cholerae used in this study were obtained from the stock collection culture centre of the Medical Microbiology and Parasitology Laboratory, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Nigeria
The survival curve of Streptococcus faecalis followed that of E. coli though a slight divergence was observed at the higher dose levels greater than 10 mgl-1-min
Summary
The objective of this work was to evaluate the validity of using E. coli as indicator of the efficiency of point-of-use chlorine-based disinfection of drinking water
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