Bhavan's Research Center, Bhavan's College Campus, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400058, India.
Department of Microbiology, Bhavan's College, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400058, India.
Food Environ Virol. 2023 Jun;15(2):131-143. doi: 10.1007/s12560-023-09555-2. Epub 2023 May 3.
Wastewater-based epidemiology has been recognized as a tool to monitor the progress of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. The study presented herein aimed at quantitating the SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewaters, predicting the number of infected individuals in the catchment areas, and correlating it with the clinically reported COVID-19 cases. Wastewater samples (n = 162) from different treatment stages were collected from three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) from Mumbai city during the 2nd surge of COVID-19 (April 2021 to June 2021). SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19, was detected in 76.2% and 4.8% of raw and secondary treated (n = 63 each) wastewater samples respectively while all tertiary treated samples (n = 36) were negative. The quantity of SARS-CoV-2 RNA determined as gene copies/100 mL varied among all the three WWTPs under study. The gene copy numbers thus obtained were further used to estimate the number of infected individuals within the population served by these WWTPs using two published methods. A positive correlation (p < 0.05) was observed between the estimated number of infected individuals and clinically confirmed COVID-19 cases reported during the sampling period in two WWTPs. Predicted infected individuals calculated in this study were 100 times higher than the reported COVID-19 cases in all the WWTPs assessed. The study findings demonstrated that the present wastewater treatment technologies at the three WWTPs studied were adequate to remove the virus. However, SARS-CoV-2 genome surveillance with emphasis on monitoring its variants should be implemented as a routine practice to prepare for any future surge in infections.
污水流行病学已被认为是监测全球 COVID-19 大流行进展的一种工具。本文旨在定量检测污水中的 SARS-CoV-2 RNA，预测集水区内感染个体的数量，并将其与临床报告的 COVID-19 病例相关联。在 COVID-19 第二波疫情期间（2021 年 4 月至 6 月），从孟买市的三个污水处理厂（WWTP）收集了不同处理阶段的污水样本（n=162）。在原始和二级处理（n=63 各）污水样本中分别检测到导致 COVID-19 的 SARS-CoV-2 的 76.2%和 4.8%，而所有三级处理（n=36）样本均为阴性。以基因拷贝/100 毫升表示的 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 量在所有三个研究中的 WWTP 中均有所不同。使用两种已发表的方法，进一步将获得的基因拷贝数用于估计这些 WWTP 所服务人群中的感染个体数量。在两个 WWTP 中，观察到估计的感染个体数量与采样期间临床确诊的 COVID-19 病例之间存在正相关（p<0.05）。在所有评估的 WWTP 中，本研究预测的感染个体数比报告的 COVID-19 病例高 100 倍。研究结果表明，研究中三个 WWTP 目前的污水处理技术足以去除病毒。然而，应实施 SARS-CoV-2 基因组监测，重点监测其变体，作为常规做法，为未来的感染激增做好准备。
