Early warning of COVID-19 via wastewater-based epidemiology: potential and bottlenecks

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145124

Review

. 2021 May 1:767:145124.

doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145124. Epub 2021 Jan 21.

Early warning of COVID-19 via wastewater-based epidemiology: potential and bottlenecks

Yifan Zhu¹, Wakana Oishi², Chikako Maruo², Mayuko Saito³, Rong Chen⁴, Masaaki Kitajima⁵, Daisuke Sano⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan.
³ Department of Virology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, 2-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resource, Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Engineering, Xi'a University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China.
⁵ Division of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, North-13 West-8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8628, Japan.
⁶ Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan. Electronic address: daisuke.sano.e1@tohoku.ac.jp.

PMID: 33548842
PMCID: PMC7825884
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145124

Review

Early warning of COVID-19 via wastewater-based epidemiology: potential and bottlenecks

Yifan Zhu et al. Sci Total Environ. 2021.

. 2021 May 1:767:145124.

doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145124. Epub 2021 Jan 21.

Authors

Yifan Zhu¹, Wakana Oishi², Chikako Maruo², Mayuko Saito³, Rong Chen⁴, Masaaki Kitajima⁵, Daisuke Sano⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan.
³ Department of Virology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, 2-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resource, Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Engineering, Xi'a University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China.
⁵ Division of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, North-13 West-8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8628, Japan.
⁶ Department of Frontier Sciences for Advanced Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan. Electronic address: daisuke.sano.e1@tohoku.ac.jp.

PMID: 33548842
PMCID: PMC7825884
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145124

Abstract

An effective early warning tool is of great administrative and social significance to the containment and control of an epidemic. Facing the unprecedented global public health crisis caused by COVID-19, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been given high expectations as a promising surveillance complement to clinical testing which had been plagued by limited capacity and turnaround time. In particular, recent studies have highlighted the role WBE may play in being a part of the early warning system. In this study, we briefly discussed the basics of the concept, the benefits and critical points of such an application, the challenges faced by the scientific community, the progress made so far, and what awaits to be addressed by future studies to make the concept work. We identified that the shedding dynamics of infected individuals, especially in the form of a mathematical shedding model, and the back-calculation of the number of active shedders from observed viral load are the major bottlenecks of WBE application in the COVID-19 pandemic that deserve more attention, and the sampling strategy (location, timing, and interval) needs to be optimized to fit the purpose and scope of the WBE project.

Keywords: COVID-19 surveillance; Epidemic early warning; Fecal shedding; Virus genome recovery; Wastewater-based epidemiology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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References

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[1] Ahmed W., Angel N., Edson J., Bibby K., Bivins A., O’Brien J.W., Choi P.M., Kitajima M., Simpson S.L., Li J., Tscharke B., Verhagen R., Smith W.J.M., Zaugg J., Dierens L., Hugenholtz P., Thomas K.V., Mueller J.F. First confirmed detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater in Australia: a proof of concept for the wastewater surveillance of COVID-19 in the community. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;728:138764. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138764. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[2] Ahmed W., Angel N., Edson J., Bibby K., Bivins A., O’Brien J.W., Choi P.M., Kitajima M., Simpson S.L., Li J., Tscharke B., Verhagen R., Smith W.J.M., Zaugg J., Dierens L., Hugenholtz P., Thomas K.V., Mueller J.F. First confirmed detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater in Australia: a proof of concept for the wastewater surveillance of COVID-19 in the community. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;728:138764. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138764. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[3] Ahmed W., Bertsch P.M., Angel N., Bibby K., Bivins A., Dierens L., Edson J., Ehret J., Gyawali P., Hamilton K.A., Hosegood I., Hugenholtz P., Jiang G., Kitajima M., Sichani H.T., Shi J., Shimko K.M., Simpson S.L., Smith W.J.M., Symonds E.M., Thomas K.V., Verhagen R., Zaugg J., Mueller J.F. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in commercial passenger aircraft and cruise ship wastewater: a surveillance tool for assessing the presence of COVID-19 infected travellers. J. Travel Med. 2020;27:1–11. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taaa116. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[4] Ahmed W., Bertsch P.M., Angel N., Bibby K., Bivins A., Dierens L., Edson J., Ehret J., Gyawali P., Hamilton K.A., Hosegood I., Hugenholtz P., Jiang G., Kitajima M., Sichani H.T., Shi J., Shimko K.M., Simpson S.L., Smith W.J.M., Symonds E.M., Thomas K.V., Verhagen R., Zaugg J., Mueller J.F. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in commercial passenger aircraft and cruise ship wastewater: a surveillance tool for assessing the presence of COVID-19 infected travellers. J. Travel Med. 2020;27:1–11. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taaa116. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[5] Ahmed W., Bertsch P.M., Bibby K., Haramoto E., Hewitt J., Huygens F., Gyawali P., Korajkic A., Riddell S., Sherchan S.P., Simpson S.L., Sirikanchana K., Symonds E.M., Verhagen R., Vasan S.S., Kitajima M., Bivins A. Decay of SARS-CoV-2 and surrogate murine hepatitis virus RNA in untreated wastewater to inform application in wastewater-based epidemiology. Environ. Res. 2020;191:110092. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110092. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[6] Ahmed W., Bertsch P.M., Bibby K., Haramoto E., Hewitt J., Huygens F., Gyawali P., Korajkic A., Riddell S., Sherchan S.P., Simpson S.L., Sirikanchana K., Symonds E.M., Verhagen R., Vasan S.S., Kitajima M., Bivins A. Decay of SARS-CoV-2 and surrogate murine hepatitis virus RNA in untreated wastewater to inform application in wastewater-based epidemiology. Environ. Res. 2020;191:110092. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110092. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[7] Ahmed W., Bertsch P.M., Bivins A., Bibby K., Farkas K., Gathercole A., Haramoto E., Gyawali P., Korajkic A., McMinn B.R., Mueller J.F., Simpson S.L., Smith W.J.M., Symonds E.M., Thomas K.V., Verhagen R., Kitajima M. Comparison of virus concentration methods for the RT-qPCR-based recovery of murine hepatitis virus, a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 from untreated wastewater. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;739:139960. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139960. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[8] Ahmed W., Bertsch P.M., Bivins A., Bibby K., Farkas K., Gathercole A., Haramoto E., Gyawali P., Korajkic A., McMinn B.R., Mueller J.F., Simpson S.L., Smith W.J.M., Symonds E.M., Thomas K.V., Verhagen R., Kitajima M. Comparison of virus concentration methods for the RT-qPCR-based recovery of murine hepatitis virus, a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 from untreated wastewater. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;739:139960. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139960. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[9] Arons M.M., Hatfield K.M., Reddy S.C., Kimball A., James A., Jacobs J.R., Taylor J., Spicer K., Bardossy A.C., Oakley L.P., Tanwar S., Dyal J.W., Harney J., Chisty Z., Bell M., Methner M., Paul P., Carlson C.M., McLaughlin H.P., Thornburg N., Tong S., Tamin A., Tao Y., Uehara A., Harcourt J., Clark S., Brostrom-Smith C., Page L.C., Kay M., Lewis J., Montgomery P., Stone N.D., Clark T.A., Honein M.A., Duchin J.S., Jernigan J.A. Presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections and transmission in a skilled nursing facility. N. Engl. J. Med. 2020;382:2081–2090. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2008457. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

[10] Arons M.M., Hatfield K.M., Reddy S.C., Kimball A., James A., Jacobs J.R., Taylor J., Spicer K., Bardossy A.C., Oakley L.P., Tanwar S., Dyal J.W., Harney J., Chisty Z., Bell M., Methner M., Paul P., Carlson C.M., McLaughlin H.P., Thornburg N., Tong S., Tamin A., Tao Y., Uehara A., Harcourt J., Clark S., Brostrom-Smith C., Page L.C., Kay M., Lewis J., Montgomery P., Stone N.D., Clark T.A., Honein M.A., Duchin J.S., Jernigan J.A. Presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections and transmission in a skilled nursing facility. N. Engl. J. Med. 2020;382:2081–2090. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2008457. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

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Early warning of COVID-19 via wastewater-based epidemiology: potential and bottlenecks

Affiliations

Early warning of COVID-19 via wastewater-based epidemiology: potential and bottlenecks

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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