Department of Microbiology, Fukushima Prefectural Institute of Public Health, Fukushima, Japan.
Department of Virology II, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2023 Apr 26;89(4):e0185322. doi: 10.1128/aem.01853-22. Epub 2023 Mar 28.
In the global strategy for polio eradication, environmental surveillance (ES) has been established worldwide to monitor polioviruses. In addition, nonpolio enteroviruses are simultaneously isolated from wastewater under this ES program. Hence, ES can be used to monitor enteroviruses in sewage to supplement clinical surveillance. In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we also monitored severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in sewage using the polio ES system in Japan. Enterovirus and SARS-CoV-2 were detected in sewage from January 2019 to December 2021 and from August 2020 to November 2021, respectively. Enterovirus species such as echoviruses and coxsackieviruses were frequently detected by ES in 2019, indicating the circulation of these viruses. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, sewage enterovirus detection and related patient reports were notably reduced in 2020 to 2021, suggesting changes in the hygiene behaviors of the human population in response to the pandemic. Our comparative experiment with a total of 520 reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection demonstrated that the solid-based method had a significantly higher detection rate than that of the liquid-based method (24.6% and 15.9%, respectively). Moreover, the resulting RNA concentrations were correlated with the number of new COVID-19 cases (Spearman's = 0.61). These findings indicate that the existing polio ES system can be effectively used for enterovirus and SARS-CoV-2 sewage monitoring using different procedures such as virus isolation and molecular-based detection. Long-term efforts are required to implement surveillance programs for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and they will be required even in the postpandemic era. We adopted the existing polio environmental surveillance (ES) system for SARS-CoV-2 sewage monitoring in Japan as a practical and cost-effective approach. Moreover, the ES system routinely detects enteroviruses from wastewater and, therefore, can be used for enterovirus monitoring. The liquid fraction of the sewage sample is used for poliovirus and enterovirus detection, and the solid fraction can be used for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection. The present study demonstrates how the existing ES system can be used for monitoring enteroviruses and SARS-CoV-2 in sewage.
在全球消灭脊灰战略中，已在全球范围内建立环境监测（ES）以监测脊灰病毒。此外，该 ES 计划还同时从废水中分离非脊灰肠道病毒。因此，ES 可用于监测污水中的肠道病毒，以补充临床监测。针对 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行，我们还使用日本的脊灰 ES 系统监测污水中的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）。2019 年 1 月至 12 月和 2020 年 8 月至 11 月分别从污水中检测到肠道病毒和 SARS-CoV-2。2019 年 ES 经常检测到肠道病毒属病毒如埃可病毒和柯萨奇病毒，表明这些病毒的循环。COVID-19 大流行开始后，2020 年至 2021 年污水中肠道病毒检测和相关患者报告明显减少，表明人类人口的卫生行为发生了变化。我们共进行了 520 次逆转录定量 PCR（RT-qPCR）检测 SARS-CoV-2 的对比实验，结果表明基于固相的方法的检测率明显高于基于液相的方法（分别为 24.6%和 15.9%）。此外，所得 RNA 浓度与新增 COVID-19 病例数呈正相关（Spearman's = 0.61）。这些发现表明，现有的脊灰 ES 系统可以通过病毒分离和基于分子的检测等不同程序有效地用于肠道病毒和 SARS-CoV-2 的污水监测。长期需要努力实施对当前 COVID-19 大流行的监测计划，即使在大流行后时代也需要这些计划。我们在日本采用现有的脊灰环境监测（ES）系统来监测 SARS-CoV-2 污水，这是一种实用且具有成本效益的方法。此外，ES 系统常规从废水中检测肠道病毒，因此可用于肠道病毒监测。污水样本的液体部分用于脊灰病毒和肠道病毒检测，固体部分可用于 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 检测。本研究展示了如何利用现有的 ES 系统监测污水中的肠道病毒和 SARS-CoV-2。
