Systematic assessment of SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater, rivers and drinking water - A catchment-wide appraisal.

Sci Total Environ

Magalies Water (MW), Scientific Services (SS), Research & Development (R&D) Division, Erf 3475, Stoffberg Street, Brits 0250, South Africa.

Published: December 2021

AI Article Synopsis

  • Human coronaviruses gained notoriety due to past outbreaks like SARS and MERS, both of which had high mortality rates, and COVID-19 is the latest global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 which emerged in 2019.
  • The research evaluates how SARS-CoV-2 is affected in municipal wastewater, finding viral RNA in raw influent but none in treated water, suggesting the virus may decay quickly in wastewater due to conditions like temperature and retention time.
  • Catchment-wide monitoring of wastewater can help track the presence of contagious viruses and inform water users about potential health risks associated with water bodies.

Article Abstract

Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) attracted attention in 2002 with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, caused by the SARS-CoV virus (mortality rate 9.6%), and gained further notoriety in 2012 with the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (mortality rate 34.3%). Currently, the world is experiencing an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2019. The virus can pass to the faeces of some patients, as was the case of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV viruses. This suggests that apart from the airborne (droplets and aerosols) and person-to-person (including fomites) transmission, the faecal-oral route of transmission could also be possible for HCoVs. In this eventuality, natural water bodies could act as a virus reservoir of infection. Here, the temporospatial migration and attenuation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in municipal wastewater, the receiving environment, and drinking water is evaluated, using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in the South African setting. SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA was identified in raw wastewater influent but was below the detection limit in the latter treatment stages. This suggests that the virus decays from as early as primary treatment and this could be attributed to wastewater's hydraulic retention time (2-4 h), composition, and more importantly temperature (>25 °C). Therefore, the probability of SARS-CoV-2 virus transportation in water catchments, in the eventuality that the virus remains infective in wastewater, appears to be low in the South African setting. Finally, catchment-wide monitoring offers a snapshot of the status of the catchment in relation to contagious viruses and can play a pivotal role in informing the custodians and downstream water users of potential risks embedded in water bodies.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8319043PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149298DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

sars-cov-2 virus
16
virus
9
drinking water
8
respiratory syndrome
8
mortality rate
8
water bodies
8
south african
8
african setting
8
water
6
sars-cov-2
5

Similar Publications

Safety and immunogenicity of an mRNA-1273 vaccine booster in adolescents.

Hum Vaccin Immunother

December 2025

Research and Development, Infectious Disease, Moderna, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA.

Safety, immunogenicity, and effectiveness of an mRNA-1273 50-μg booster were evaluated in adolescents (12-17 years), with and without pre-booster SARS-CoV-2 infection. Participants who had received the 2-dose mRNA-1273 100-µg primary series in the TeenCOVE trial (NCT04649151) were offered the mRNA-1273 50-μg booster. Primary objectives included safety and inference of effectiveness by establishing noninferiority of neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses after the booster compared with the nAb post-primary series of mRNA-1273 among young adults in COVE (NCT04470427).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Molnupiravir (MOV) is an orally bioavailable ribonucleoside with antiviral activity against all tested SARS-CoV-2 variants. We describe the demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics of non-hospitalized Danish patients treated with MOV and their clinical outcomes following MOV initiation.

Method: Among all adults (>18 years) who received MOV between 16 December 2021 and 30 April 2022 in an outpatient setting in Denmark, we summarized their demographic and clinical characteristics at baseline and post-MOV outcomes using descriptive statistics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pain may be an early symptom of COVID-19 infection, most commonly seen as myalgia and headache. However, atypical presentations such as abdominal pain and leg pain can also be observed. We present seven cases of COVID-19 treated for pain.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To assess the perceptions of adults with diabetes regarding their care and health during the COVID-19 pandemic in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Methods: Cross-sectional data was analysed from the 2021 follow-up questionnaire of the CoDiab-VD survey, a cohort of adults living with diabetes in the canton of Vaud. Various aspects of diabetes care and issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic were assessed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Infectious diseases, including bacterial, fungal, and viral, have once again gained urgency in the drug development pipeline after the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Tuberculosis (TB) is an old infectious disease for which eradication has not yet been successful. Novel agents are required to have potential activity against both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want 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!