Faculty of Engineering, Toyama Prefectural University, Japan.
Faculty of Geosciences and Civil Engineering, Kanazawa University, Japan.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Mar 1;758:143578. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143578. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
The presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in wastewater samples has been documented in several countries. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is potentially effective for early warning of a COVID-19 outbreak. In this study, presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater samples was investigated and was compared with the number of the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the study area during COVID-19 outbreak in Japan. In total, 45 influent wastewater samples were collected from five wastewater treatment plants in Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures in Japan. During the study period, the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in these prefectures increased from 0.3 and 0 to >20 per 100,000 people. SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the samples was detected using several PCR-based assays. Of the 45 samples, 21 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 according to at least one of the three quantitative RT-PCR assays. The detection frequency increased when the number of total confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in 100,000 people exceeded 10 in each prefecture; however, SARS-CoV-2 could also be detected at a low frequency even when the number was below 1.0. SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater could be detected in the early stage of the epidemic, even if the number of confirmed cases potentially underestimates the actual numbers of cases. This suggests that WBE approach can potentially act as an early warning of COVID-19 outbreaks in Japan.
已在多个国家的废水样本中检测到严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）的存在。基于废水的流行病学（WBE）对于 COVID-19 爆发的早期预警具有潜在作用。在这项研究中，研究了 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 在废水样本中的存在情况，并将其与日本 COVID-19 爆发期间研究区域内确诊 COVID-19 病例的数量进行了比较。总共从日本石川县和富山县的五个废水处理厂收集了 45 份进水废水样本。在研究期间，这两个县的确诊 COVID-19 病例数从 0.3 和 0 增加到超过每 100,000 人 20 例。使用几种基于 PCR 的检测方法检测了样本中的 SARS-CoV-2 核糖核酸（RNA）。根据三种定量 RT-PCR 检测方法中的至少一种，45 个样本中有 21 个为 SARS-CoV-2 阳性。当每个县每 10 万人中确诊的 SARS-CoV-2 总病例数超过 10 时，检测频率会增加；但是，即使数字低于 1.0，也可以检测到 SARS-CoV-2 的低频率。即使确诊病例数量可能低估了实际病例数量，在流行的早期阶段仍可以在废水中检测到 SARS-CoV-2。这表明 WBE 方法可能是日本 COVID-19 爆发的早期预警。
