Five-week warning of COVID-19 peaks prior to the Omicron surge in Detroit, Michigan using wastewater surveillance

Zhao, Liang; Zou, Yangyang; Li, Yabing; Miyani, Brijen; Spooner, Maddie; Gentry, Zachary; Jacobi, Sydney; David, Randy E; Withington, Scott; McFarland, Stacey; Faust, Russell A.; Sheets, Johnathon P.; Kaye, Andrew; Broz, James; Gosine, Anil; Mobley, Palencia; Busch, Andrea W. U.; Norton, John; Xagoraraki, Irene

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157040

Cited by 33 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Human vertebrate viruses excreted through feces, urine, skin, saliva, and blood can be detected in wastewater to gather insights into viral diseases circulating within a population. Previous studies have associated viral presence in wastewater with outbreaks in the corresponding community (Bisseux et al, 2018; Farkas et al, 2018; Fernandez-Cassi et al, 2021; Galani et al, 2022; Hellmér et al, 2014; McCall et al, 2021; Peccia et al, 2020; Prevost et al, 2015; Zhao et al, 2022). More recently, the CDC and public health departments have deemed wastewater monitoring as an integral public health surveillance tool for early detection and mitigation of COVID-19 (Kirby et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeted metagenomic sequencing for detection of vertebrate viruses in wastewater for public health surveillance

McCall

Elworth

Wylie

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Viruses of concern for quantitative wastewater monitoring are usually selected as a result of an outbreak and subsequent detection in wastewater. However, targeted metagenomics could proactively identify viruses of concern when used as an initial screening tool. To evaluate the utility of targeted metagenomics for wastewater screening, we used ViroCap, a panel of probes designed to target all known vertebrate viruses. Untreated wastewater was collected from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and building-level manholes associated with vulnerable populations in Houston, TX. We evaluated differences in vertebrate virus detection between WWTP and building-level samples, classified human viruses in wastewater, and performed phylogenetic analysis on astrovirus sequencing reads to evaluate targeted metagenomics for subspecies level classification. Vertebrate viruses varied widely across building-level samples. Rarely detected and abundant viruses were identified in WWTP and building-level samples, including enteric, respiratory, and bloodborne viruses. Furthermore, full length genomes were assembled from astrovirus reads and two human astrovirus serotypes were classified in wastewater samples. This study demonstrates the utility of targeted metagenomics as an initial screening step for public health surveillance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeted metagenomic sequencing for detection of vertebrate viruses in wastewater for public health surveillance

McCall

Elworth

Wylie

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…In our opinion, the N gene was the best indicator of viral concentration in WWTP samples. Other studies also use the N gene as the preferred target for viral detection [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. In our study, which aimed to quantify SARS-CoV-2 ARN in wastewater irrespective of the viral strain circulating at the time, the N gene is a logical best target as it is more conserved than the S gene.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We reported the SARS-CoV-2 viral amount in wastewater as concentration, viral gene copies per litre, and were able to show that the viral concentration is directly correlated with the reported number of infections. Other studies reported their data as concentration [ 34 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], and some even demonstrated that the normalization of clinical data using wastewater flow rate and percentage of sanitary flow did not significantly improve the correlation between the SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in wastewater and COVID-19 clinical cases in communities during the study period [ 33 , 39 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic Sewage Water Circuit as Vector for SARS-CoV-2 Viral ARN Transport and Public Health Assessment, Monitoring and Forecasting—Sibiu Metropolitan Area (Transylvania/Romania) Study Case

Boeraș

Curtean–Bănăduc

Bănăduc

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Water is a risk factor for epidemics of waterborne diseases with effects on human health. In 2019, new viral pneumonia cases occurred in China and spread worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and accuracy of a wastewater-based epidemiological (WBE) monitoring tool in a SARS-CoV-2 hot spot (Sibiu City metropolitan area), namely to highlight the correlation between the number of infections on the days of sampling and the amount of viral RNA detected in wastewater. Wastewater samples were collected once a week, and viral RNA was extracted and quantified. In parallel, the daily number of SARS-CoV-2 infections was obtained from the local council. The correlation between the number of infections and viruses detected in sewage was measured by Pearson correlation coefficients. The results show the amount of viral RNA in the wastewater is directly correlated with the number of infections reported in the week up to the sampling day and also the number of infections reported for the sampling day. Moreover, correlation coefficients show the amount of viral RNA in wastewater increases in advance of the increase in reported infection cases. Therefore, WBE can be used as a tool for monitoring virus spread trends in human communities and can help anticipate the trend of this type of viral infection.

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“…A recent study suggests that wastewater concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA are also well-correlated with COVID-19 prevalence, which was estimated from randomized nasal swab sampling, more so than incident clinical cases because case data are prone to reporting biases such as underreporting of asymptomatic cases [9]. In addition, trends in wastewater concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA were found to precede trends in incident clinical cases in communities [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. WBE may therefore be a more reliable and objective tool than incident clinical case data for continued monitoring of COVID-19 because wastewater captures both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals and does not depend on test seeking behavior or testing availability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying trends in SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater to infer changing COVID-19 incidence: Effect of sampling frequency

et al. 2023

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SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater solids and liquids are correlated with reported incident COVID-19 cases. Reporting of incident COVID-19 cases has changed dramatically with the availability of at-home antigen tests. Wastewater monitoring therefore represents an objective tool for continued monitoring of COVID-19 occurrence. One important use case for wastewater data is identifying when there are sustained changes or trends in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations. Such information can be used to inform public health messaging, testing, and vaccine resources. However, there is limited research on best approaches for identifying trends in wastewater monitoring data. To fill this knowledge gap, we applied three trend analysis methods (relative strength index (RSI), percent change (PC), Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test) to daily measurements of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater solids from a wastewater treatment plant to characterize trends. Because daily measurements are not common for wastewater monitoring programs, we also conducted a downsampling analysis to determine the minimum sampling frequency necessary to capture the trends identified using the “gold standard” daily data. The PC and MK trend test appear to perform similarly and better than the RSI in terms of first detecting increasing and decreasing trends using a 14-day look-back period, so we only considered the PC and MK trend test methods in the downsampling analysis. Using an acceptable sensitivity and specificity cutoff of 0.5, we found that a minimum of 4 samples/week and 5 samples/week is necessary to detect trends identified by daily sampling using the PC and MK trend test method, respectively. If a higher sensitivity and specificity is needed, then more samples per week would be needed. Public health officials can adopt these trend analysis approaches and sampling frequency recommendations to wastewater monitoring programs aimed at providing information on how incident COVID-19 cases are changing in the contributing communities.

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Five-week warning of COVID-19 peaks prior to the Omicron surge in Detroit, Michigan using wastewater surveillance

Cited by 33 publications

References 48 publications

Targeted metagenomic sequencing for detection of vertebrate viruses in wastewater for public health surveillance

Targeted metagenomic sequencing for detection of vertebrate viruses in wastewater for public health surveillance

Anthropogenic Sewage Water Circuit as Vector for SARS-CoV-2 Viral ARN Transport and Public Health Assessment, Monitoring and Forecasting—Sibiu Metropolitan Area (Transylvania/Romania) Study Case

Identifying trends in SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater to infer changing COVID-19 incidence: Effect of sampling frequency

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