SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in untreated wastewater: first detection in a low-resource community in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Iglesias, Néstor Gabriel; Gebhard, Leopoldo Germán; Carballeda, Juan Manuel; Aiello, Ignacio; Recalde, Emiliano; Terny, Gabriel; Ambrosolio, Silvina; L'Arco, Gabriela; Konfino, Jonatan; Brardinelli, Juan Ignacio

doi:10.1101/2020.10.21.20215434

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In Chile (Santiago, from March to June), the viral RNA was noticed in the influent and effluent sampling points. In Argentina (Buenos Aires, from 5 June to 7 September), all 11 samples collected from wastewater showed a viral load [ 73 ]. In this case, it is important to highlight that SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected during the first two months of analyses.…”

Section: Actual Status Of Wastewater Contamination With Sars-cov-2mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…WHO has also recommended a modified version incorporating dextran addition of PEG precipitation for poliovirus circulation’s environmental surveillance [ 114 ]. Due to its well-known success in the detection of poliovirus, many researchers have applied PEG precipitation with slightly different implementations or modifications to the composite, grab wastewater, or sewage sludge samples collected from different sources (manholes and WWTPs) located in the Republic of Turkey [ 66 , 99 ], India [ 25 , 75 ], Italy [ 58 ], USA [ 62 , 115 ], Argentina [ 73 ], Japan [ 97 ], Spain [ 14 , 59 , 90 , 93 ], Israel [ 60 ], Canada [ 64 ], the United Arab Emirates [ 86 ], and France [ 87 ] to recover SARS-CoV-2 genetic material as indicated in Table 2 . Moreover, it has been successfully detected and quantified by its different implication like overnight standing [ 25 , 71 , 87 , 91 , 97 , 116 ].…”

Section: Molecular Detection Of Sars-cov-2 In Wastewater and Treatment Plant Sludgementioning

confidence: 99%

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Wastewater Based Epidemiology Perspective as a Faster Protocol for Detecting Coronavirus RNA in Human Populations: A Review with Specific Reference to SARS-CoV-2 Virus

et al. 2021

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Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has a long history of identifying a variety of viruses from poliovirus to coronaviruses, including novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The presence and detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human feces and its passage into the water bodies are significant public health challenges. Hence, the hot issue of WBE of SARS-CoV-2 in the coronavirus respiratory disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a matter of utmost importance (e.g., SARS-CoV-1). The present review discusses the background, state of the art, actual status, and prospects of WBE, as well as the detection and quantification protocols of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. The SARS-CoV-2 detection studies have been performed in different water matrixes such as influent and effluent of wastewater treatment plants, suburban pumping stations, hospital wastewater, and sewer networks around the globe except for Antarctica. The findings revealed that all WBE studies were in accordance with clinical and epidemiological data, which correlates the presence of SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA) with the number of new daily positive cases officially reported. This last was confirmed via Reverse Transcriptase-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) testing which unfortunately is not suitable for real-time surveillance. In addition, WBE concept may act as a faster protocol to alert the public health authorities to take administrative orders (possible re-emerging infections) due to the impracticality of testing all citizens in a short time with limited diagnostic facilities. A comprehensive and integrated review covering all steps starting from sampling to molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater has been made to guide for the development well-defined and reliable protocols.

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Section: Actual Status Of Wastewater Contamination With Sars-cov-2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Molecular Detection Of Sars-cov-2 In Wastewater and Treatment Plant Sludgementioning

confidence: 99%

Wastewater Based Epidemiology Perspective as a Faster Protocol for Detecting Coronavirus RNA in Human Populations: A Review with Specific Reference to SARS-CoV-2 Virus

et al. 2021

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“…The vitality of viruses was negligible, indicating the absence of sanitary risks. Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 or its fragments is currently realized in wastewater in the USA (Louisiana, Detroit), Czech Republic, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Frankfurt in Germany, or in sludge (Istanbul) [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]. However, there are not enough data available for the sludge contamination [ 20 ].…”

Section: Coronavirus Sars-cov-2 and Wastewatermentioning

confidence: 99%

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology as an Early Warning System for the Spreading of SARS-CoV-2 and Its Mutations in the Population

Martı́n

Gál

Špalková

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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New methodologies based on the principle of “sewage epidemiology” have been successfully applied before in the detection of illegal drugs. The study describes the idea of early detection of a virus, e.g., SARS-CoV-2, in wastewater in order to focus on the area of virus occurrence and supplement the results obtained from clinical examination. By monitoring temporal variation in viral loads in wastewater in combination with other analysis, a virus outbreak can be detected and its spread can be suppressed early. The use of biosensors for virus detection also seems to be an interesting application. Biosensors are highly sensitive, selective, and portable and offer a way for fast analysis. This manuscript provides an overview of the current situation in the area of wastewater analysis, including genetic sequencing regarding viral detection and the technological solution of an early warning system for wastewater monitoring based on biosensors.

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“…In most of those places, rivers or other water bodies receive the discharges of untreated (sometimes illegally) or insufficiently treated wastewater, impacting the water quality and thus, the use of the resource (Rimoldi et al, 2020). In such scenarios, surface water like natural or artificial ponds (Iglesias et al, 2020) or rivers could also be used as tools for assessing the epidemiological situation of the population. The first attempt in that direction was done by Guerrero-Latorre and coworkers (2020) that evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in a context of low sanitation countries.…”

Section: Cn3covmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance

Maidana-Kulesza

Poma

Sanguino-Jorquera

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The aim of this work was to evaluate if rivers could be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to support health authorities. Five sampling points from three rivers (AR-1 and AR-2 in Arenales River, MR-1 and MR-2 in Mojotoro River, and CR in La Caldera River) from the Province of Salta (Argentina), two of them receiving the discharges of the wastewater plants (WWTP) of the city of Salta, were monitored from July to December 2020 during the first wave of COVID-19. Fifteen water samples from each point (75 samples in total) were collected and characterized physico-chemically and microbiologically and SARS-CoV-2 was quantitatively detected by RT-qPCR. In addition, two targets linked to human contributions, human polyomavirus (HPyV) and RNase P, were quantified and used to normalize the SARS-CoV-2 concentration, which was ultimately compared to the active reported COVID-19 cases. Statistical analyses allowed us to verify the correlation between SARS-CoV-2 and the concentration of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), as well as to find similarities and differences between sampling points. La Caldera River showed the best water quality, and FIB were within acceptable limits for recreational activities. Although Mojotoro River receives the discharge of the northern WWTP of the city, it did not affect the water quality. Instead, the Arenales River presented the poorest water quality and the river at AR-2 was negatively affected by the discharges of the southern WWTP, which contributed to the significant increase of fecal contamination. SARS-CoV-2 was only found in about half of the samples and in low concentrations in La Caldera and Mojotoro Rivers, while it was high and persistent in the Arenales River. None of the two human tracers was detected in CR, only HPyV was found in MR-1, MR-2 and AR-1, and both were quantified in AR-2. The experimental and the normalized (using the two tracers) viral concentrations strongly correlated with the curve of active reported COVID-19 cases; thus, the Arenales River at AR-2 reflected the epidemiological situation of the city. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study that showed the dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 concentration in an urban river highly impacted by wastewater and proved that can be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to support health authorities.

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SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in untreated wastewater: first detection in a low-resource community in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cited by 6 publications

References 13 publications

Wastewater Based Epidemiology Perspective as a Faster Protocol for Detecting Coronavirus RNA in Human Populations: A Review with Specific Reference to SARS-CoV-2 Virus

Wastewater Based Epidemiology Perspective as a Faster Protocol for Detecting Coronavirus RNA in Human Populations: A Review with Specific Reference to SARS-CoV-2 Virus

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology as an Early Warning System for the Spreading of SARS-CoV-2 and Its Mutations in the Population

Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance

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