Somatic Coliphage and Viral Risk Considering Treatment Competence in Low Income Settings

Differences between virus interaction with other treatment processes are well documented. For example, free chlorine has a wide variety of efficacy against different strains of Coxsackievirus (Kahler et la. 2010). Viruses have a predominantly negative surface charge that varies depending on the water matrix. Recent investigations have shown the effect of strain level differences to the virus genome and capsid on the surface charge and hydrophobicity which may determine their removal during the coagulation/flocculation stage. There is a dearth of knowledge regarding how these differences manifest and influence interactions between the viruses and coagulants. I aim to shed lights on these aspect by testing different strains of coliphages (somatic and F-specific) representing different pathogenic viruses prevalent in different water matrices to address the following questions:
1. What is the mechanism of interaction between different viruses, coagulants/flocculants, and mechanisms of coagulation/flocculation?
2. How effective is the optimum coagulant/flocculant dose in removing or inactivating viruses by disrupting the viral genome and capsid?
3. Do all viruses respond differently to a specific coagulant dose at specific conditions?
4. What is the response of viruses to different coagulant doses and how it varies with change in other parameters such as pH and temperature?
5. As most of the viruses present in water are negatively charged. What is the any relation between virus removal/inactivation and zeta potential?