SARS-CoV-2: fate in water environments and sewage surveillance as an early warning system

Abstract

Coronavirus disease has emerged as one of the greatest threats to human well-being. Currently, the whole world is fighting against this pandemic that transmit either through exposure to virus laden respiratory or water droplets or by touching the virus contaminated surfaces. The viral load in feces of an infected patient varies according to the severity of the disease. Subsequent detection of viral genome (SARS-COV-2) in human feces and sewage systems is an emerging concern for public health. This also dictates to reinforce the existing sewage/wastewater treatment facilities. Rapid monitoring is the key to prevent and control the current mass transmission. Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) is a potential epidemiology tool that can act as a complementary approach for current infectious disease surveillance systems and an early warning system for disease outbreaks. In a developing country like India, inadequate wastewater treatment systems, low-operational facility and relaxed surface water quality criteria even in terms of fecal coliform bacteria are the major challenges for WBE. Herein, we review the occurrence, transmission, survival of SARS-CoV-2, disinfection and potential of sewage surveillance as an early warning system for COVID-19 spread. We also discuss the challenges of open-defecation practices affecting sewage-surveillance in real-time in densely populated developing countries like India.

The One Health concept for the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 to marine ecosystems

“…Detection of SARS-CoV-2 is confirmed in municipal sewage of several countries worldwide [9,14,[70][71][72]. In Italy, SARS-CoV-2 was found in river samples, and in Turkey was seen in primary and activated waste sludges from seven WWTPs [17,60].…”

“…Release of treated, partially treated, and untreated sewage into aquatic systems is common. Discharges in developing countries to receiving waters are comprised of up to 80% partially treated wastewater [14]. The volume of sewage discharged from urban cities of India was 61.754 million liters per day [14].…”

“…Discharges in developing countries to receiving waters are comprised of up to 80% partially treated wastewater [14]. The volume of sewage discharged from urban cities of India was 61.754 million liters per day [14]. Moreover, several Mediterranean countries dump wastewater into coastal waters without treatment, and this practice has a substantial negative impact on the aquatic flora and fauna of the Mediterranean Sea [68].…”

“…In December 2019, COVID-19 began in Wuhan, China [12,13]. The surge in this disease in Asia and Europe led the WHO to declare the outbreak as a pandemic in March 2020 [14].…”

Comparison of analytical sensitivity and efficiency for SARS-CoV-2 primer sets by TaqMan-based and SYBR Green-based RT-qPCR

“…In countries well containing the outbreak, such as China, sporadic outbreaks still occurred and were associated with international freight transportation, especially cold chain transportation (Feng et al 2021 ; Pang et al 2020 ; Yang et al 2021 ). Moreover, poor ventilation, air conditioning (Morawska et al 2020 ), and wastewater plumbing system (Gormley et al 2020 ; Panchal et al 2021 ) may increase transmission. On the other hand, measuring SARS-CoV-2 in indoor air and wastewater could be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of the virus in certain population (Medema et al 2020 ).…”