A novel wastewater-based epidemiology indexing method predicts SARS-CoV-2 disease prevalence across treatment facilities in metropolitan and regional populations

Melvin, Richard G; Hendrickson, Emily N; Chaudhry, N; Georgewill, Onimitein; Freese, Rebecca; Schacker, Timothy W.; Simmons, Glenn

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00853-y

Cited by 29 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The presence of the viral RNA in the wastewater, even at low levels, indicates that SARS-CoV-2 can remain detectable in sewage for days or weeks [ 64 , 65 , 66 ]. Thus, the wastewater system is serving as a surveillance system for the circulation of the virus within several environments [ 35 , 67 , 68 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS-CoV-2 in Environmental Samples of Quarantined Households

Döhla

Schulte

Wilbring

et al. 2022

Viruses

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The role of environmental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 remains unclear. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate whether viral contamination of air, wastewater, and surfaces in quarantined households result in a higher risk for exposed persons. For this study, a source population of 21 households under quarantine conditions with at least one person who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA were randomly selected from a community in North Rhine-Westphalia in March 2020. All individuals living in these households participated in this study and provided throat swabs for analysis. Air and wastewater samples and surface swabs were obtained from each household and analysed using qRT-PCR. Positive swabs were further cultured to analyse for viral infectivity. Out of all the 43 tested adults, 26 (60.47%) tested positive using qRT-PCR. All 15 air samples were qRT-PCR-negative. In total, 10 out of 66 wastewater samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (15.15%) and 4 out of 119 surface samples (3.36%). No statistically significant correlation between qRT-PCR-positive environmental samples and the extent of the spread of infection between household members was observed. No infectious virus could be propagated under cell culture conditions. Taken together, our study demonstrates a low likelihood of transmission via surfaces. However, to definitively assess the importance of hygienic behavioural measures in the reduction of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, larger studies should be designed to determine the proportionate contribution of smear vs. droplet transmission.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS-CoV-2 in Environmental Samples of Quarantined Households

Döhla

Schulte

Wilbring

et al. 2022

Viruses

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“…The NY Sewershed database was created to support public health efforts related to WBE including the important role of providing population estimates for wastewater test results (10,16). Linking wastewater results to the upstream population is essential for interpretation of findings (6) particularly for case and incidence data for health outcomes of concern such as COVID-19 (27), Polio (28) and other enteroviruses, and opioid use (29). Community-based research that uses wastewater data needs accurate estimates for population served by the facility and large-scale investigations that need to scale up quickly may not have the time to create boundaries or provide estimates in a timely manner particularly if the data are to be used for public health policy.…”

Section: Applications For Public Health Research and Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Using geographic information systems to link population estimates to wastewater surveillance data in New York State, USA

Hill

Larsen

2022

Preprint

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Sewer systems provide many services to communities that have access to them beyond removal of waste and wastewater. Understanding of these systems’ geographic coverage is essential for wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), which requires accurate estimates for the population contributing wastewater. Reliable estimates for the boundaries of a sewer service area or sewershed can be used to link upstream populations to wastewater samples taken at treatment plants or other locations within a sewer system. These geographic data are usually managed by public utilities, municipal offices, and some government agencies, however, there are no centralized databases for geographic information on sewer systems. We created a database for all municipal sewersheds in New York State for the purpose of supporting statewide wastewater surveillance efforts to support public health. We used a combination of public tax records with sewer access information, physical maps, and municipal records to organize and draw digital boundaries compatible with geographic information systems. The methods we employed to create these data will be useful to inform similar efforts in other jurisdictions and the data have many public health applications as well as being informative for water/environmental research and infrastructure projects.

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“…Recently, spurred by the global COVID-19 pandemic, WBE has been applied to detect and quantify SARS-CoV-2 RNA in influent wastewater as a measure of SARS-CoV-2 viral infection trends and prevalence in a community ( Daughton, 2020 ). Reports from North America ( Gonzalez et al., 2020 ; Melvin et al., 2021 ; Peccia et al., 2020a ; Sherchan et al., 2020 ; Wu et al., 2021 ), Australia ( Ahmed et al., 2020 ), Europe ( La Rosa et al., 2020 ; Rimoldi et al., 2020 ; Wurtzer et al., 2020 ), and India ( Kumar et al., 2020 ) suggest that testing for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater could serve as an indicator of infection trends within communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%