Qamsari Elahe Mobarak, Mohammadi Parisa
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
Research Center for Applied Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
Water Air Soil Pollut. 2023;234(4):273. doi: 10.1007/s11270-023-06273-0. Epub 2023 Apr 12.
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a potential approach for determining the viral prevalence in a community. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have begun to pay close attention to the presence of SARS-COV-2 RNA in various wastewaters. The potential for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in hospital sewage could make it an invaluable resource for epidemiological studies. In this regard, two specialized hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 patients were chosen for this investigation. Both hospitals utilize the same wastewater treatment systems. The influent and effluents of the two hospitals were sampled in May and June of 2021, and the samples were evaluated for their chemical properties. According to the findings of this study, the wastewater qualities of the two studied hospitals were within the standard ranges. The sewage samples were concentrated using ultrafiltration and PEG precipitation techniques. The E and S genes were studied with RT-qPCR commercial kits. We found E gene of SARS-CoV-2 in 83.3% (5/6) and 66.6% (4/6) of wastewater samples from hospital 1 and hospital 2, respectively, using ultrafiltration concentration method. Wastewater samples taken after chlorine treatment accounted for 16.6% of all positive results. In addition, due to the small sample size, there was no significant correlation ( > 0.05) between the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and the number of COVID-19 cases. Hospitals may be a source of SARS-CoV-2 pollution, thus it is important to monitor and enhance wastewater treatment systems to prevent the spread of the virus and safeguard the surrounding environment.
基于废水的流行病学(WBE)是确定社区中病毒流行情况的一种潜在方法。在新冠疫情之后,研究人员开始密切关注各种废水中严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2(SARS-CoV-2)RNA的存在情况。在医院污水中检测SARS-CoV-2 RNA的可能性使其成为流行病学研究的宝贵资源。在这方面,本研究选择了两家收治新冠患者的专科医院。两家医院使用相同的废水处理系统。于2021年5月和6月采集了两家医院的进水和出水样本,并对样本的化学性质进行了评估。根据本研究的结果,两家被研究医院的废水质量在标准范围内。使用超滤和聚乙二醇沉淀技术对污水样本进行浓缩。使用逆转录定量聚合酶链反应(RT-qPCR)商业试剂盒研究E基因和S基因。采用超滤浓缩法,我们分别在医院1的83.3%(5/6)和医院2的66.6%(4/6)的废水样本中发现了SARS-CoV-2的E基因。经过氯处理后的废水样本占所有阳性结果的16.6%。此外,由于样本量小,废水中SARS-CoV-2的存在与新冠病例数之间没有显著相关性(>0.05)。医院可能是SARS-CoV-2污染的一个来源,因此监测和加强废水处理系统对于防止病毒传播和保护周边环境非常重要。