Genome Center, University of California, Davisgrid.27860.3b, Davis, California, USA.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davisgrid.27860.3b, Davis, California, USA.
mSphere. 2022 Dec 21;7(6):e0017722. doi: 10.1128/msphere.00177-22. Epub 2022 Oct 11.
Environmental monitoring of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) for research and public health purposes has grown exponentially throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 provides early warning signals of virus spread and information on trends in infections at a community scale. Indoor environmental monitoring (e.g., swabbing of surfaces and air filters) to identify potential outbreaks is less common, and the evidence for its utility is mixed. A significant challenge with surface and air filter monitoring in this context is the concern of "relic RNA," noninfectious RNA found in the environment that is not from recently deposited virus. Here, we report detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on surfaces in an isolation unit (a university dorm room) for up to 8 months after a COVID-19-positive individual vacated the space. Comparison of sequencing results from the same location over two time points indicated the presence of the entire viral genome, and sequence similarity confirmed a single source of the virus. Our findings highlight the need to develop approaches that account for relic RNA in environmental monitoring. Environmental monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly becoming a key tool in infectious disease research and public health surveillance. Such monitoring offers a complementary and sometimes novel perspective on population-level incidence dynamics relative to that of clinical studies by potentially allowing earlier, broader, more affordable, less biased, and less invasive identification. Environmental monitoring can assist public health officials and others when deploying resources to areas of need and provides information on changes in the pandemic over time. Environmental surveillance of the genetic material of infectious agents (RNA and DNA) in wastewater became widely applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been less research on other types of environmental samples, such as surfaces, which could be used to indicate that someone in a particular space was shedding virus. One challenge with surface surveillance is that the noninfectious genetic material from a pathogen (e.g., RNA from SARS-CoV-2) may be detected in the environment long after an infected individual has left the space. This study aimed to determine how long SARS-CoV-2 RNA could be detected in a room after a COVID-positive person had been housed there.
为了研究和公共卫生目的，对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）进行环境监测在整个 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行期间呈指数级增长。监测废水中的 SARS-CoV-2 可提供病毒传播的早期预警信号，并提供社区范围内感染趋势的信息。在室内环境监测（例如，表面和空气过滤器的拭子采样）以识别潜在的暴发情况则不太常见，其效用的证据也存在分歧。在这种情况下，表面和空气过滤器监测的一个重大挑战是对“遗留 RNA”的担忧，即环境中发现的无传染性 RNA，而不是来自最近沉积的病毒。在这里，我们报告了在 COVID-19 阳性个体离开空间后长达 8 个月的时间里，在隔离单元（大学宿舍）中表面检测到 SARS-CoV-2 RNA。对两个时间点同一位置的测序结果进行比较表明存在整个病毒基因组，并且序列相似性证实了病毒的单一来源。我们的研究结果强调需要开发在环境监测中考虑遗留 RNA 的方法。
SARS-CoV-2 的环境监测正在迅速成为传染病研究和公共卫生监测的重要工具。与临床研究相比，这种监测提供了一种补充的、有时是新颖的人群水平发病动态视角，通过潜在地更早、更广泛、更经济实惠、偏差更小和侵入性更小的方式进行识别。环境监测可以在需要资源的地区协助公共卫生官员和其他人，并提供有关随时间变化的大流行信息。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，广泛应用了对废水中传染性病原体（RNA 和 DNA）遗传物质的环境监测。对其他类型的环境样本（例如表面）的研究较少，这些样本可用于指示特定空间中的某人正在释放病毒。表面监测的一个挑战是，感染个体离开空间后，来自病原体的非传染性遗传物质（例如 SARS-CoV-2 的 RNA）可能会在环境中检测到很长时间。本研究旨在确定在 COVID-19 阳性患者居住在房间后，SARS-CoV-2 RNA 可以在房间中检测到多长时间。
