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[Evidence summary:} What is the evidence for waste water surveillance to enhance other forms of surveillance for COVID-19? [v1.0]

dc.contributor.authorNational Health Library & Knowledge Service (NHLKS)
dc.contributor.authorCarrigan, Marie
dc.contributor.authorReynolds, Julia
dc.contributor.authorLeen, Brendan
dc.date.accessioned2020-12-10T16:39:09Z
dc.date.available2020-12-10T16:39:09Z
dc.date.issued2020-12-10
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10147/628642
dc.descriptionThe presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in faeces provides the potential to conduct waste water surveillance of the virus to support epidemiological monitoring of COVID-19. This is referred to as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) or environmental surveillance. Many countries including Ireland are now sampling their waste water for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Recent studies have reported the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater in the early stages of local outbreaks6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16. Results seem to suggest that wastewater could be a sensitive surveillance system and early warning tool that could predict spikes in infections. Wu et al describe water-based surveillance as a promising approach for proactive outbreak monitoring. “SARS-CoV-2 is shed in stool early in the clinical course and infects a large asymptomatic population, making it an ideal target for wastewater-based monitoring”13. Daughton believes that wastewater-based epidemiology could hold the potential to contain and mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks while also minimizing domino effects such as unnecessarily long stay-at-home policies that put pressure on humans and economies5. According to research, cost savings worldwide for one-time national surveillance campaigns are estimated to be in the range of millions to billions of US$, depending on a nation's population size and number of testing rounds conducted10 . From September, the Netherlands will adopt a national wastewater surveillance strategy, and samples from over 300 water treatment plants will be tested daily34. The UK have commenced testing wastewater samples from 44 treatment sites and researchers are pioneering waste water analysis as part of a nationwide programme. There are challenges involved in wastewater monitoring: eg the proportion of the virus present in wastewater can change depending on the amount of rainwater entering the sewage system; temperature and other factors could alter the amount of viral material that survives in one city’s sewers compared with another’s32. Ahmed points out that there is a need for further methodological and molecular validation for enveloped viruses in waste water6. Lu conducted a review of the primary concentration methods that have been adopted by the eighteen recently reported COVID-19 wastewater detection studies. In the end, two easy and well-proven concentration strategies are recommended, aiming to maximize the practical significance and operational effectiveness of the SARS-CoV-2 virus concentration from wastewater samples30. The World Health Organisation (WHO) say that surveillance of COVID-19 in wastewater and sludge may compliment public health data and provide, for example, information on when cases may spike 5-7 days in advance of such spikes being detected by health facilities and health authorities3. The WHO also point out that environmental surveillance should not be used as a substitute for robust surveillance of COVID-19 cases and there is not yet sufficient evidence to recommend environmental surveillance as a standard approach for COVID-19 surveillance1. The COVID-19 WBE Collaborative [https://www.COVID19wbec.org/] was launched in partnership with the Sewage analysis CORe group Europe (SCORE) network and the Global Water Pathogen Project as a hub to coordinate and promote the efforts of research groups undertaking WBE for COVID-19. The website include content such as a listing of SARS-CoV-2 WBE publications, press releases, commentaries and media content for public outreach and will be used to solicit participation in the collaborative and advertise events relevant to WBE.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherHealth Service Executiveen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesQuestion 131en_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/*
dc.subjectCORONAVIRUSen_US
dc.subjectCOVID-19en_US
dc.subjectWATERen_US
dc.subjectWATER QUALITYen_US
dc.subjectWASTE DISPOSALen_US
dc.title[Evidence summary:} What is the evidence for waste water surveillance to enhance other forms of surveillance for COVID-19? [v1.0]en_US
dc.typeOtheren_US
refterms.dateFOA2020-12-10T16:39:15Z


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