RAPID: Microbial Risk Assessment of Disease Burdens in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Post Hurricanes Irma and Maria

RAPID：飓风艾尔玛和玛丽亚后美属维尔京群岛圣托马斯疾病负担的微生物风险评估

• 批准号: 1804166
• 负责人: Chenyang Jiang
• 金额: $ 13.03万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-11-01 至 2019-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1804166&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Microbial; Risk; Assessment; Disease

Part 1.The island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands was devastated by back-to-back category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, during the past month. There is limited electricity on St. Thomas, the most populated island, since hurricane Irma. Major flooding combined with a lack of electricity for water treatment has resulted in the potential to produce widespread contamination of waterways and subsequent exposure to microbial pathogens in untreated wastewater. A major issue with understanding the potential impact of such events is that they occur relatively infrequently and are of too short duration to allow for the data collection and scientific evaluation using the traditional proposal evaluation and funding processes. This proposal seeks to quantitatively characterize this microbial exposure risk and provide critical data on water contamination post-hurricane in an island community to better understand and prepare for future disaster responses. The project proposed here will fill this critical void by carrying out the field campaign in the disaster area before the restoration of electricity and water infrastructure, as well as to provide a base of comparison for subsequent studies of the recovery of the environment over time. This field campaign is only possible because of project collaborator Dr. Kellogg's intimate familiarity of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and her network of family and friends on the island.Part 2.The specific project objectives are to i) conduct sanitary and water supply infrastructure survey; ii) survey residential water use behavior and water related activities; iii) quantification of microbial pathogens in water samples across the island; and iv) perform a Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) of disease burdens through exposure assessment and dose-response models. To overcome the challenge of field sampling logistics, a research vessel will be used to carry research equipment, supplies, researchers, fuel, food and water from mainland to reach St. Thomas by sea. Water samples (i.e. from sewage outfalls or septic drain fields) will be collected for detection of important water-related microbial pathogens using state-of-the-art nucleic acid amplification for target Legionella, E. coli, Salmonella, Giardia, adenovirus and norovirus. The disease risk estimations will integrate the daily volume of water exposure with pathogen concentration distributions in various waters and existing dose-response relationship from clinical trials. The outcomes of this project will help this underprivileged island community accelerate the process of recovery, while also facilitate the training of a graduate student to deal with ?real world? research challenges in the field.

第1部分。在过去的一个月里，美属维尔京群岛的圣托马斯岛接连遭到5级飓风“厄玛”和“玛丽亚”的袭击。自飓风“厄玛”以来，人口最多的圣托马斯岛的电力供应有限。大洪水加上缺乏水处理电力，可能造成水道的广泛污染，并随后暴露于未经处理的废水中的微生物病原体。了解此类事件的潜在影响的一个主要问题是，它们发生的频率相对较低，持续时间太短，无法利用传统的提案评价和供资过程进行数据收集和科学评价。该提案旨在定量描述这种微生物暴露风险，并提供岛屿社区飓风后水污染的关键数据，以便更好地了解和准备未来的灾害应对措施。这里提出的项目将填补这一关键空白，在恢复水电基础设施之前在灾区进行实地考察，并为随后的环境恢复研究提供一个比较基础。由于项目合作者凯洛格博士对维尔京群岛圣托马斯岛的熟悉程度以及她在岛上的家人和朋友网络，这个实地活动才有可能进行。第2部分。具体的项目目标是：i)进行卫生和供水基础设施调查；Ii)调查居民用水行为和与水有关的活动；㈢对全岛水样中的微生物病原体进行定量分析；iv)通过暴露评估和剂量反应模型对疾病负担进行定量微生物风险评估（QMRA）。为了克服实地采样后勤的挑战，将使用一艘研究船从大陆运送研究设备、用品、研究人员、燃料、食物和水，经海路到达圣托马斯岛。将收集水样（即来自污水排放口或化粪池排放场），利用最先进的核酸扩增技术检测与水有关的重要微生物病原体，以检测目标军团菌、大肠杆菌、沙门氏菌、贾第鞭毛虫、腺病毒和诺如病毒。疾病风险评估将综合考虑每天接触水的量、不同水域的病原体浓度分布以及临床试验中现有的剂量-反应关系。这个项目的成果将有助于这个贫困的岛屿社区加速恢复的进程，同时也有助于培养一名研究生处理？现实世界吗?研究领域的挑战。

项目成果

Assessing the water quality impacts of two Category-5 hurricanes on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

• DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.115440
• 发表时间: 2020-03-15
• 期刊: WATER RESEARCH
• 影响因子: 12.8
• 作者: Jiang, Sunny C.;Han, Muyue;Kellogg, Christina A.
• 通讯作者: Kellogg, Christina A.