A multivariate analysis to explain residue errors in pathogen concentration in wastewater-based epidemiology.

With the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), which according to Larsen et al. (2021), describes the science of linking pathogens and chemicals found in wastewater to population-level health, received an enormous boost worldwide. The basic procedure in WBE is to analyse pathogen concentrations and to relate these measurements to cases from clinical data.

Sewer system sampling for wastewater-based disease surveillance: Is the work worth it?

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influent sampling is commonly used in wastewater-based disease surveillance to assess the circulation of pathogens in the population aggregated in a catchment area. However, the signal can be lost within the sewer network due to adsorption, degradation, and dilution processes. The present work aimed to investigate the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 concentration in three sub-catchments of the sewer system in the city of Hildesheim, Germany, characterised by different levels of urbanisation and presence/absence of industry, and to evaluate the benefit of sub-catchment sampling compared to WWTP influent sampling.