tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Sci Total Environ
. 2021 Dec 23;152597.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152597. Online ahead of print.
Association of SARS-CoV-2 presence in sewage with public adherence to precautionary measures and reported COVID-19 prevalence in Tehran
Fatemeh Amereh[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mahsa Jahangiri-Rad[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Seyed Reza Mohebbi[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Hamid Asadzadeh-Aghdaei[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Hossein Dabiri[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Akbar Eslami[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Kasra Roostaei[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Rahim Aali[SUP] 8 [/SUP], Parisa Hamian[SUP] 9 [/SUP], Mohammad Rafiee[SUP] 10 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Compared to the growing body of literature on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection and quantification in sewage, there are limited studies reporting on correlations between the viral loads in sewage and the prevalence of infected patients. The present work is a part of the regular monitoring effort for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater influents from seven wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Tehran, Iran, starting from late September 2020 until early April 2021. These facilities cover ~64% of the metropolis serving >5000,000 M individuals. The study set out to track the trends in the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community using wastewater based epidemiology (WBE) and to investigate whether these measurements correlate with officially reported infections in the population. Composite sewage samples collected over 16 h were enriched by polyethylene glycol precipitation and the corresponding threshold cycle (Ct) profiles for CDC 'N' and 'ORF1ab' assays were derived through real time RT-qPCR. Monte Carlo simulation model was employed to provide estimates of the disease prevalence in the study area. RNA from SARS-CoV-2 was detectable in 100% ('N' assay) and 81% ('ORF1ab' assay) of totally 91 sewage samples, with viral loads ranging from 40 to 45,000 gene copies/L. The outbreak of COVID-19 positively correlated (R[SUP]2[/SUP] = 0.80) with the measured viral load in sewage samples. Furthermore, sewage SARS-CoV-2 RNA loads preceded infections in the population by 1 to 2 days, which were in line with public adherence with and support for government instructions to contain the pandemic. Given the transient presence of human host-restricted infections such as SARS-CoV-2, these results provide evidence for assessment of the effectiveness of coordinated efforts that specifically address public health responses based on wastewater-based disease surveillance against not only COVID-19 but also for future infectious outbreaks.
Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation; Public health; SARS-CoV-2; Sewage surveillance; Wastewater-based epidemiology.
. 2021 Dec 23;152597.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152597. Online ahead of print.
Association of SARS-CoV-2 presence in sewage with public adherence to precautionary measures and reported COVID-19 prevalence in Tehran
Fatemeh Amereh[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mahsa Jahangiri-Rad[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Seyed Reza Mohebbi[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Hamid Asadzadeh-Aghdaei[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Hossein Dabiri[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Akbar Eslami[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Kasra Roostaei[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Rahim Aali[SUP] 8 [/SUP], Parisa Hamian[SUP] 9 [/SUP], Mohammad Rafiee[SUP] 10 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34954185
- DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152597
Abstract
Compared to the growing body of literature on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection and quantification in sewage, there are limited studies reporting on correlations between the viral loads in sewage and the prevalence of infected patients. The present work is a part of the regular monitoring effort for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater influents from seven wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Tehran, Iran, starting from late September 2020 until early April 2021. These facilities cover ~64% of the metropolis serving >5000,000 M individuals. The study set out to track the trends in the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community using wastewater based epidemiology (WBE) and to investigate whether these measurements correlate with officially reported infections in the population. Composite sewage samples collected over 16 h were enriched by polyethylene glycol precipitation and the corresponding threshold cycle (Ct) profiles for CDC 'N' and 'ORF1ab' assays were derived through real time RT-qPCR. Monte Carlo simulation model was employed to provide estimates of the disease prevalence in the study area. RNA from SARS-CoV-2 was detectable in 100% ('N' assay) and 81% ('ORF1ab' assay) of totally 91 sewage samples, with viral loads ranging from 40 to 45,000 gene copies/L. The outbreak of COVID-19 positively correlated (R[SUP]2[/SUP] = 0.80) with the measured viral load in sewage samples. Furthermore, sewage SARS-CoV-2 RNA loads preceded infections in the population by 1 to 2 days, which were in line with public adherence with and support for government instructions to contain the pandemic. Given the transient presence of human host-restricted infections such as SARS-CoV-2, these results provide evidence for assessment of the effectiveness of coordinated efforts that specifically address public health responses based on wastewater-based disease surveillance against not only COVID-19 but also for future infectious outbreaks.
Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation; Public health; SARS-CoV-2; Sewage surveillance; Wastewater-based epidemiology.