The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis and continues to impact communities as the disease spreads. Clinical testing alone provides a snapshot of infected individuals but is costly and difficult to perform logistically across whole populations. The virus which causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is shed in human feces and urine and can be detected in human waste. SARS-CoV-2 can be shed in high concentrations (>10 genomic copies/mL) due to its ability to replicate in the gastrointestinal tract of humans through attachment to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) receptors there. Monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, alongside clinical testing, can more accurately represent the spread of disease within a community. This protocol describes a reliable and efficacious method to recover SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, quantify genomic RNA levels, and evaluate concentration fluctuations over time. Using this protocol, viral levels as low as 10 genomic copies/mL were successfully detected from 30 mL of wastewater in more than seven-hundred samples collected between August 2020 and March 2021. Through the adaptation of traditional enteric virus methods used in food safety research, targets have been reliably detected with no inhibition of detection (RT-qPCR) observed in any sample processed. This protocol is currently used for surveillance of wastewater systems across New Castle County, Delaware.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8162551 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mps4020032 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Wastewater Monitoring During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Veneto Region, Italy: Longitudinal Observational Study.
JMIR Public Health Surveill
January 2025
Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padova, Via Loredan 18, Padova, Italy, 39 049 8275384.
Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic has affected populations around the world, there has been substantial interest in wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a tool to monitor the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This study investigates the use of WBE to anticipate COVID-19 trends by analyzing the correlation between viral RNA concentrations in wastewater and reported COVID-19 cases in the Veneto region of Italy.
Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart method in detecting changes in SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in wastewater and its potential as an early warning system for COVID-19 outbreaks.
Hyperplex PCR enables highly multiplexed analysis of point mutations in wastewater: Long-term SARS-CoV-2 variant surveillance in Sweden as a case study.
Water Res
January 2025
Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7050, 75007, Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address:
Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) allows the analysis of pathogens, chemicals or other biomarkers in wastewater to derive unbiased epidemiological information at population scale. After re-gaining attention during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the field holds promise as a surveillance and early warning system by tracking emerging pathogens with pandemic potential. Expanding the current toolbox of analytical techniques for wastewater analysis, we explored the use of Hyperplex PCR (hpPCR) to analyse SARS-CoV-2 mutations in wastewater samples collected weekly in up to 22 sites across Sweden between October 2022 and December 2023.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLocalised wastewater SARS-CoV-2 levels linked to COVID-19 cases: A long-term multisite study in England.
Sci Total Environ
January 2025
School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, NR4 7TJ, UK; NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response, London, UK. Electronic address:
Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) can monitor for the presence of human health pathogens in the population. During COVID-19, WBS was widely used to determine wastewater SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration (concentrations) providing information on community COVID-19 cases (cases). However, studies examining the relationship between concentrations and cases tend to be localised or focussed on small-scale institutional settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLifting of travel restrictions brings additional noise in COVID-19 surveillance through wastewater-based epidemiology in post-pandemic period.
Water Res
January 2025
Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia. Electronic address:
The post-pandemic world still faces ongoing COVID-19 infections, although international travel has returned to pre-pandemic conditions. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is considered an efficient tool for the population-wide surveillance of COVID-19 infections during the pandemic. However, the performance of WBE in post-pandemic era with travel restrictions lifted remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe influence of environmental factors on the detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 variants in dormitory wastewater at a primarily undergraduate institution.
Microbiol Spectr
January 2025
Department of Biology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA.
Unlabelled: Testing for the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been crucial in tracking disease spread and informing public health decisions. Wastewater-based epidemiology has helped to alleviate some of the strain of testing through broader, population-level surveillance, and has been applied widely on college campuses. However, questions remain about the impact of various sampling methods, target types, environmental factors, and infrastructure variables on SARS-CoV-2 detection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!