Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in hospital wastewater from a low COVID-19 disease prevalence area

Abstract

Previous studies on SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV reported the detection of viral RNA in the stool of both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. These clinical observations suggest that municipal and hospital wastewater from affected communities may contain SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Recent studies have also reported the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in human feces. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a promising approach to understand the prevalence of viruses in a given catchment population, as wastewater contains viruses from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. The current study reports the first detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in untreated wastewater in Slovenia. Two sizes of centrifugal filters were tested: 30 kDa and 10 kDA AMICON® Ultra-15 Centrifugal Filters, where 10 kDA resulted in a higher concentration factor and higher recovery efficiency. The results in hospital wastewater show that WBE can be used for monitoring COVID -19 and could be applied in municipal wastewater treatment plants as a potential complementary tool for public health monitoring at population level.

Uncertainties in estimating SARS-CoV-2 prevalence by wastewater-based epidemiology

“…With the recent development of detection methods, 13 available primer-probe sets, targeting regions and cycling parameters were further summarized (Table S2). Among these primer and probe sets, inconsistent performance between different primer-probe sets was commonly observed [27] , [75] , [77] , [80] , [98] . For instance, using the same wastewater samples, a higher positive ratio was detected with CDC N1 assays (19/63) than in E_Sarbeco assays (2/63) [75] .…”

“…human excretion), and catchment population, the catchment-level prevalence can be estimated. To date, the existence of SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA in wastewater have been confirmed in many countries, including, Australia [8] , [9] , Brazil [10] , China [11] , [12] , Czech Republic [13] , Ecuador [14] , France [15] , [16] , India [17] , [18] , Italy [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , Japan [23] , Spain [24] , [25] , the Netherlands [7] , United Kingdom (UK) [26] , Slovenia [27] , Sweden [28] , United Arab Emirates (UAE) [29] , [30] and United States (USA) [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] . The successful detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA through reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and sequencing approaches in wastewater demonstrated the high potential of applying WBE as a tool to estimate the COVID-19 prevalence in their communities.…”

Wastewater Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 from Acute Care Hospitals Identifies Nosocomial Transmission and Outbreaks

“…Novel strategies to understand the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals are therefore urgently required. One such strategy may be the monitoring of hospital wastewater[25].…”

Respiratory viruses in foods and their potential transmission through the diet: A review of the literature

“…According to Gwenzi (2021) , contamination through faecal-oral route can be caused by three pathways: 1) contaminated drinking water; 2) uncooked and/or poorly cooked contaminated foods; and 3) vector-mediated transmission from faecal sources to foods. Thus, SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in wastewater, which raises the possibility of food contamination ( Ahmed et al, 2021 ; Gonçalves et al, 2020 ; Thippareddi et al, 2020 ). It is well known that foodborne viruses are transmitted mainly through the faecal-oral route by consuming contaminated foods and/or water, as well as by infected food handlers and animals, so foodborne outbreaks for respiratory viruses would be plausible ( Bosch et al, 2018 ).…”