There has been an accelerating increase in water reuse due to growing world population, rapid urbanization, and increasing scarcity of water resources. However, it is well recognized that water reuse practice is associated with many human health and ecological risks due to numerous chemicals and pathogenic microorganisms. Especially, the potential transmission of infectious disease by hundreds of pathogenic viruses in wastewater is one of the most serious human health risks associated with water reuse. In this study, we determined the response of different bacteriophages representing various bacteriophage groups to chlorination in real wastewater in order to identify a more reliable bacteriophage indicator system for chlorination in wastewater. Different bacteriophages were spiked into secondary effluents from wastewater plants from three different geographic areas, and then subjected to various doses of free chlorine and contact time at 5˚C in a bench-scale batch disinfection system. The inactivation of φX174 was relatively rapid and reached ∼4 log10 with a CT value of 5 mg/L*min. On the other hand, the inactivation of bacteriophage PRD1 and MS2 were much slower than the one for φX174 and only ~1 log10 inactivation was achieved by a CT value of 10 mg/L*min. Overall, the results of this study suggest that bacteriophage both MS2 and PRD1 could be a reliable indicator for human pathogenic viruses for chlorination in wastewater treatment processes and water reuse practice.

Questionnaires were distributed to Radiology departments at hospitals with 300 sickbeds throughout the Pohang region of North Gyeongsang Province concerning awareness and performance levels of infection control. The investigation included measurements of the pollution levels of imaging equipment and assistive apparatuses in order to prepare a plan for the activation of prevention and management of hospital infections. The survey was designed to question respondents in regards to personal data, infection management prevention education, and infection management guidelines. The ATP Public Heath Monitering System was used to measure seven items for pollution levels of imaging equipment and assistive apparatuses in the Radiology Department. Data was analysed using SPSS version 12.0 for paired t-test and Pearson coefficient with a statistically significant level of 0.05. The results of the survey showed a total awareness level of infection management prevention education averaged at 3.73 ± 0.64 and performance levels resulted at 3.39 ± 0.83 which were statistically significant (p = 0.01). Also the measurements of pollution levels for equipment with high patient contact showed a Pearson Coefficient of over 0.5 implying a focus on pathogenic bacterium. There was no statistical significance with the frequency of imaging (p < 0.05). Therefore for general hospitals with high patient contact, there is a need to supply analyzing equipment for real time monitoring and the implementation of disinfection management that uses a Ministry of Health and Welfare approved antiseptic solution twice every minute.