Early SARS-CoV-2 outbreak detection by sewage-based epidemiology

Orive, Gorka; Lertxundi, Unax; Barceló, Damià

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139298

Cited by 150 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…This approach can provide rapid and reliable information about the disease outbreaks and their trends in the population. It seems to be suitable for surveillance of mild, subclinical, or asymptomatic cases [25,[40][41][42][43][44]. Our preliminary results confirmed the potential of this approach for use as an early warning tool for effective surveillance of the diseases spread.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…Wastewater monitoring has been successfully used for tracking drug consumption, pharmaceutical use, water pollution, and antibiotic resistance [36][37][38]. However, through SARS-CoV-2 detection in wastewater, it is also possible to obtain unique epidemiological information on its occurrence in the population (presence, absence, and trends: increase, stagnation, decrease) [39][40][41][42][43][44]. A properly set up wastewater monitoring system enables outbreak monitoring and trend observations in the numbers of viral diseases of future periods and may be used as an early warning tool to set up a system for effective surveillance of disease spread.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Preliminary Study of Sars-Cov-2 Occurrence in Wastewater in the Czech Republic

Mlejnková

Sovová

Vašíčková

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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The virus SARS-CoV-2, which has caused the recent COVID-19 pandemic, may be present in the stools of COVID-19 patients. Therefore, we aimed to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater for surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the population. Samples of untreated wastewater were collected from 33 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of different sizes within the Czech Republic. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was concentrated from wastewater and viral RNA was determined using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 11.6% of samples and more than 27.3% of WWTPs; in some of them, SARS-CoV-2 was detected repeatedly. Our preliminary results indicate that an epidemiology approach that focuses on the determination of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater could be suitable for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the population.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Study of Sars-Cov-2 Occurrence in Wastewater in the Czech Republic

Mlejnková

Sovová

Vašíčková

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The prevalence of COVID-19 in the tested population is not always known, which could affect the optimal pool size. This could be addressed either by external estimates, such as a previous run of individual samples, rate of symptomatic patients, or alternative methods such as serological screening or wastewater titres monitoring [28,29]. Alternatively, it is possible to dynamically adapt pooling sizes, when the measured rate of positive samples is different than expected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale implementation of pooled RNA extraction and RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 detection

Ben-Ami¹,

Klochendler²,

Seidel³

et al. 2020

Clinical Microbiology and Infection

183

147

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Introduction: Testing for active SARS-CoV-2 infection is a fundamental tool in the public health measures taken to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the overwhelming use of SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription (RT)-PCR tests worldwide, the availability of test kits has become a major bottleneck and the need to increase testing throughput is rising. We aim to overcome these challenges by pooling samples together, and performing RNA extraction and RT-PCR in pools. Methods: We tested the efficiency and sensitivity of pooling strategies for RNA extraction and RT-PCR detection of SARS-CoV-2. We tested 184 samples both individually and in pools to estimate the effects of pooling. We further implemented Dorfman pooling with a pool size of eight samples in large-scale clinical tests. Results: We demonstrated pooling strategies that increase testing throughput while maintaining high sensitivity. A comparison of 184 samples tested individually and in pools of eight samples showed that test results were not significantly affected. Implementing the eight-sample Dorfman pooling to test 26 576 samples from asymptomatic individuals, we identified 31 (0.12%) SARS-CoV-2 positive samples, achieving a 7.3-fold increase in throughput. Discussion: Pooling approaches for SARS-CoV-2 testing allow a drastic increase in throughput while maintaining clinical sensitivity. We report the successful large-scale pooled screening of asymptomatic

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“…A study from Australia ( Ahmed et al, 2020 ) showed that the number of infected individuals in the catchment areas could be reasonably estimated by detecting the copy numbers of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater, which verified that early detection of coronavirus in wastewater might be a viable surveillance strategy for COVID-19 infections ( Daughton, 2020 ; Orive et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020b ) as previously demonstrated for hepatitis A virus, norovirus ( Hellmér et al, 2014 ) and poliovirus ( Asghar et al, 2014 ; Lodder et al, 2012 ). Although there was no sufficient evidence that fecal-oral transmission of COVID-19 was viable, while there was evidence showed that SARS-CoV-2 could be easily and sustainably transmitted in the community in Shenzhen, China, because the proportion of COVID-19 patients without definite exposure from January 25 through February 5 (11%) was much higher than that before January 24 (6%) ( Liu et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pit latrines may be a potential risk in rural China and low-income countries when dealing with COVID-19

Liu

Hou

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

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According to the latest reports, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which caused coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was successfully isolated from the excreta (stool and urine) of COVID-19 patients, suggesting SARS-CoV-2 could be transmitted through excreta contaminated water. As pit latrines and the use of untreated excreta as fertilizer were common in rural China, we surveyed 27 villages of Jiangxi and Hubei provinces and found that pit latrines could be a potential source of SARS-CoV-2 water pollution. Recently, bats have been widely recognized as the source of SARS-CoV-2. There were many possible intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2, including pangolin, snake, bird and fish, but which one was still not clear exactly. Here, we proposed a hypothesis to illustrate the mechanism that SARS-CoV-2 might spread from the excreta of infected humans in pit latrines to potential animal hosts, thus becoming a sustainable source of infection in rural China. Therefore, we believe that abolishing pit latrines and banning the use of untreated excreta as fertilizer can improve the local living environment and effectively prevent COVID-19 and other potential waterborne diseases that could emanate from the excreta of infected persons. Although this study focused on rural areas in China, the results could also be applied to low-income countries, especially in Africa.

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Early SARS-CoV-2 outbreak detection by sewage-based epidemiology

Abstract: Detect early presence of virus in sewage.• SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated from the faeces.• Sampling, preserving and processing samples are critical issues.• Consider a SARS-CoV-2 sewage-monitoring plan.

Cited by 150 publications

References 9 publications

Preliminary Study of Sars-Cov-2 Occurrence in Wastewater in the Czech Republic

Preliminary Study of Sars-Cov-2 Occurrence in Wastewater in the Czech Republic

Large-scale implementation of pooled RNA extraction and RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 detection

Pit latrines may be a potential risk in rural China and low-income countries when dealing with COVID-19

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