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Environments
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Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Infectious Disease Surveillance
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Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Infectious Disease Surveillance

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2023) | Viewed by 16751

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Kristen Jellison

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Interests: water-borne pathogens; pathogen fate and transport; watershed protection; water treatment; water and wastewater surveillance; environmental biotechnology
Dr. Vassie Ware

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Interests: RNA biology; ribosome heterogeneity; ribosome-mediated gene regulation; bacteriophage–host interactions; phage biology
Dr. Tiong Gim Aw

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Interests: environmental surveillance; viruses; water-borne pathogens; wastewater; water quality; environmental health; molecular techniques; metagenomics
Prof. Dr. Lian Lundy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Natural Sciences, Middlesex University, London NW4 4BT, UK
2. Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lulea university of technology, 97187 Lulea, Sweden
Interests: sources, behaviour and fate of diffuse urban pollutants; sustainable drainage systems; risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), or environmental surveillance, has been used to better understand disease transmission for decades, and its application for the protection of public health has gained heightened attention in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. While the presence of pathogens in wastewater is well established, the ways in which these pathogens can inform community health trends (and thus contribute to the development of public health team responses) is currently the focus of extensive global research efforts. Much of the current research is dedicated to studying the potential for the wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA to serve as an early diagnostic tool to identify new outbreaks and/or changes in the transmission of COVID-19 in a community. However, wastewater surveillance has also been used in the past to provide early warnings of infectious disease outbreaks caused by poliovirus, hepatitis A and E viruses, enterovirus, and norovirus. The potential of WBE to enhance our understanding of well-known and emerging infectious diseases warrants further investigation. In the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, critical questions remain regarding the effect of spatial and temporal environmental factors on the relationship between viral RNA concentrations in wastewater and COVID-19 transmission in a community, as well as the use of WBE within a public health context—in other words, which data are useful to public health teams and what should their response be? What are the ethical implications? We are inviting papers for this Special Issue that explore the utility of wastewater surveillance for detecting pathogens at a community or near source scale to better understand infectious disease transmission, as well as the use of WBE data to protect public health; papers describing method development for the quantification of pathogens in wastewater matrices are also welcome.

Dr. Kristen Jellison
Dr. Vassie Ware
Dr. Tiong Gim Aw
Prof. Dr. Lian Lundy
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wastewater
  • wastewater-based epidemiology
  • environmental surveillance
  • pathogens
  • epidemiology
  • public health

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1979 KiB  
Article
Building-Scale Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance at Nursing Homes in A Coruña, Spain
by Noelia Trigo-Tasende, Juan A. Vallejo, Soraya Rumbo-Feal, Kelly Conde-Pérez, Mohammed Nasser-Ali, Javier Tarrío-Saavedra, Inés Barbeito, Fernando Lamelo, Ricardo Cao, Susana Ladra, Germán Bou and Margarita Poza
Environments 2023, 10(11), 189; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10110189 - 1 Nov 2023
Viewed by 2178
Abstract
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has become an effective tool in the surveillance of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. In this work, we performed a brief study of monitoring the SARS-CoV-2 viral load in wastewater from six nursing homes located in the metropolitan area of [...] Read more.
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has become an effective tool in the surveillance of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. In this work, we performed a brief study of monitoring the SARS-CoV-2 viral load in wastewater from six nursing homes located in the metropolitan area of A Coruña (Spain) between December 2020 and March 2021. The main objective was to detect SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks among residents and study the efficacy of the vaccination campaign. SARS-CoV-2 viral load (RNA copies per L of wastewater) was determined by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) using the quantification cycle (Cq) values for the nucleocapsid (N) gene. Our results showed that the increase in viral load preceded the increase in clinical cases, favoring an early warning system that detects COVID-19 outbreaks in advance, making it possible to contain and stop the transmission of the virus among residents. In addition, the efficacy of the new COVID-19 vaccines was evidenced, since after the vaccination campaign in nursing homes in A Coruña, it was observed that many residents did not present any symptoms of the disease, although they excreted high amounts of virus in their feces. WBE is a cost-effective strategy that should be implemented in all cities to prevent new emerging diseases or future pandemic threats. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Infectious Disease Surveillance)
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27 pages, 1551 KiB  
Article
A State-of-the-Art Review on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Removal Using Different Wastewater Treatment Strategies
by Biswaranjan Paital, Kajari Das, Fatemeh Malekdar, Miguel A. Sandoval, Elnaz Karamati Niaragh, Zacharias Frontistis, Tapas Ranjan Behera, Gabriella Balacco, Sarawut Sangkham, Akshaya Kumar Hati and Milad Mousazadeh
Environments 2022, 9(9), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments9090110 - 31 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5472
Abstract
In addition to the numerous health effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific community has considered other emerging effects such as water-related impacts worthy of deep investigation. In this regard, the transmission cycles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from fecal, vomiting, and sputum [...] Read more.
In addition to the numerous health effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific community has considered other emerging effects such as water-related impacts worthy of deep investigation. In this regard, the transmission cycles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from fecal, vomiting, and sputum routes to sewage have led health authorities to diagnose, prevent, and use novel wastewater treatment technologies. Once they enter the gastrointestinal canal of a healthy person, viral particles can infect via the nominal amount of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) present in alimentary canal epithelial cell surfaces and further infect lung, heart, kidney, and other organs. The current review highlights the detection, status, and fate of SARS-CoV-2 from sewage treatment facilities to water bodies. Besides, it addresses the potential wastewater treatment processes to cope with various viruses, especially SARS-CoV-2. Many processes can manage contaminated wastewater and solid wastes over the long term, including membrane technologies, disinfectants, UV-light and advanced oxidation methods like photocatalysis, ozonation, hydrogen peroxide, nanomaterials, and algae. Future work must focus on implementing the selected actions for the treatment of the wastewater released from the COVID-19 hospitals and self-quarantine centers to better regulate future waves of SARS-CoV-2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Infectious Disease Surveillance)
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17 pages, 3549 KiB  
Article
Evaluating the Use of Alternative Normalization Approaches on SARS-CoV-2 Concentrations in Wastewater: Experiences from Two Catchments in Northern Sweden
by Frida Isaksson, Lian Lundy, Annelie Hedström, Anna J. Székely and Nahla Mohamed
Environments 2022, 9(3), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments9030039 - 19 Mar 2022
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 7525
Abstract
The detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragments in feces has paved the way for wastewater-based epidemiology to contribute to COVID-19 mitigation measures, with its use in a public health context still under development. As a way to facilitate data comparison, this paper explores the [...] Read more.
The detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragments in feces has paved the way for wastewater-based epidemiology to contribute to COVID-19 mitigation measures, with its use in a public health context still under development. As a way to facilitate data comparison, this paper explores the impact of using alternative normalization approaches (wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) flow, population size estimates (derived using total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and census data) and pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV)) on the relationship between viral wastewater data and clinical case numbers. Influent wastewater samples were collected at two WWTPs in Luleå, northern Sweden, between January and March 2021. TN and TP were determined upon sample collection, with RNA analysis undertaken on samples after one freeze–thaw cycle. The strength of the correlation between normalization approaches and clinical cases differed between WWTPs (r ≤ 0.73 or r ≥ 0.78 at the larger WWTP and r ≤ 0.23 or r ≥ 0.43 at the smaller WWTP), indicating that the use of wastewater as an epidemiological tool is context-dependent. Depending on the normalization approach utilized, time-shifted analyses imply that wastewater data on SARS-CoV-2 RNA pre-dated a rise in clinical cases by 0–2 and 5–8 days, for the lager and smaller WWTPs, respectively. SARS-CoV-2 viral loads normalized to the population or PMMoV better reflect the number of clinical cases when comparing wastewater data between sewer catchments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Infectious Disease Surveillance)
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