Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 genome fragment in urban, peri-urban and rural water bodies: a temporal and comparative analysis

As a result of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, water bodies connected to anthropogenic activities may likely reveal the presence of viral genetic material. Urban, periurban and rural water bodies in and around Hyderabad, Telangana, India, were monitored for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments during the first and second wave of COVID-19 infection. The SARS-CoV-2 genes were not detected in peri-urban and rural lakes, whereas urban lakes having direct functional attributes from domestic activity showed prevalence. Distinct variability in viral load observed among five water bodies was in concordance with human activity in the catchment area. High viral load was observed during the peaks of the first and second waves, specifically in urban lakes. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Longitudinal and Long-Term Wastewater Surveillance for COVID-19: Infection Dynamics and Zoning of Urban Community.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is emerging as a potential approach to study the infection dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 at a community level. Periodic sewage surveillance can act as an indicative tool to predict the early surge of pandemic within the community and understand the dynamics of infection and, thereby, facilitates for proper healthcare management. In this study, we performed a long-term epidemiological surveillance to assess the SARS-CoV-2 spread in domestic sewage over one year (July 2020 to August 2021) by adopting longitudinal sampling to represent a selected community (~2.5 lakhs population). Results indicated temporal dynamics in the viral load. A consistent amount of viral load was observed during the months from July 2020 to November 2020, suggesting a higher spread of the viral infection among the community, followed by a decrease in the subsequent two months (December 2020 and January 2021). A marginal increase was observed during February 2021, hinting at the onset of the second wave (from March 2021) that reached it speak in April 2021. Dynamics of the community infection rates were calculated based on the viral gene copies to assess the severity of COVID-19 spread. With the ability to predict the infection spread, longitudinal WBE studies also offer the prospect of zoning specific areas based on the infection rates. Zoning of the selected community based on the infection rates assists health management to plan and manage the infection in an effective way. WBE promotes clinical inspection with simultaneous disease detection and management, in addition to an advance warning signal to anticipate outbreaks, with respect to the slated community/zones, to tackle, prepare for and manage the pandemic.

Corrigendum to "Defining the methodological approach for wastewater-based epidemiological studies-Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2" [Environ. Technol. Innov. 23 (2021) 101696].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.eti.2021.101696.].

Defining the methodological approach for wastewater-based epidemiological studies-Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.

Since COVID-19 outbreak, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) studies as surveillance system is becoming an emerging interest due to its functional advantage as a tool for early warning signal and to catalyze effective disease management strategies based on the community diagnosis. An attempt was made in this study to define and establish a methodological approach for conducting WBE studies in the framework of identifying/selection of surveillance sites, standardizing sampling policy, designing sampling protocols to improve sensitivity, adopting safety protocol, and interpreting the data. Data from hourly sampling indicated a peak in the viral RNA during the morning hours (6-9 am) when the all the domestic activities are maximum. The daily sampling and processing revealed the dynamic nature of infection spread among the population. The two sampling methods viz. grab, and composite showed a good correlation. Overall, this study establishes a structured protocol for performing WBE studies that could provide useful insights on the spread of the pandemic at a given point of time. Moreover, this framework could be extrapolated to monitor several other clinically relevant diseases. Following these guidelines, it is possible to achieve measurable and reliable SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater infrastructure and therefore, provides a methodological basis for the establishment of a national surveillance system.