Possible transmission of viruses from contaminated human feces and sewage: Implications for SARS-CoV-2.
Sci Total Environ
; 755(Pt 1): 142575, 2021 Feb 10.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1768521
ABSTRACT
Humanity has experienced outbreaks by viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1) in 2003, Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012, Ebola virus in 2014 and nowadays SARS-CoV-2. While clinicians seek for a vaccine to reduce the epidemic outbreak, environmental engineers need to understand consequence of virus entity in sewage given the reported persistency of viruses in human feces and sewage environments for more than days. Herein, we discuss about concerns associated with virus occurrence in human feces and sewage, with attention to the possible SARS-CoV-2 transmission routes, based on the review of recent studies on SARS-CoV-2 as well as the previous pandemic events. Given the reported environmental stability of coronavirus, the feces- and sewage-derived transmission routes may be of importance to prevent unprecedented spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) particularly in developing countries. However, so far, limited number of studies detected infectious SARS-CoV-2 even in human feces, whereas a number of virus RNA copies were identified in both feces and sewage specimens. Therefore, uncertainty remains in the possibility of this transmission pathway, and further investigation is warranted in future studies, for example, by increasing the number of specimens, examining the effectiveness of methods for viral viability test, considering the patient medical history, and so forth.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Sci Total Environ
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS