Hepatitis disease is caused by hepatitis A virus (HAV), Positive single stranded RNA virus,
belongs to the family of Picornavaridae. Hepatitis A virus infection occurs globally and is
causing a public health concern, primarily in developing countries due to its persistent
circulation in the environment. The improved sanitary condition and increase in awareness of
personal hygiene have led to the marked reduction of HAV prevalence in industrialized
countries during childhood and to a shift of the infection towards adulthood. HAV is an
environmentally stable, that is primarily transmitted by the fecal-oral route, person to person
contact or ingestion of contaminated food and drink. One of the main causes leading to HAV
infection is epidemiologically linked to the consumption of raw or undercooked shellfish
particularly oysters and clams. Due to their filter-feeding style, these shellfishes readily
concentrate viruses from the surrounding water containing municipal sewage, and as a
consequence pose a health threat to consumers. Therefore, development of detection
techniques possessing the requisite sensitivity and specificity for the practical routine
monitoring purposes is of great importance necessary for the protection of shellfishconsuming
public. Nucleic acid-based method such as reverse transcription PCR has emerged
as the popular method of choice in view of rapidity, accuracy, and sensitivity in contrary of
the time-consuming conventional cell culture and hybridization techniques. The low
concentration of viral genome present in the environmental sample which requires effective
isolation and concentration of virions and the labor-extensive purification, removal of PCR
inhibitors will be unfavorable. |
