Medema Gertjan, Heijnen Leo, Elsinga Goffe, Italiaander Ronald, Brouwer Anke
KWR Water Research Institute, Groningenhaven 7, 3433 PE Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.
Environ Sci Technol Lett. 2020 May 20;7(7):511-516. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00357. eCollection 2020 Jul 14.
In the current COVID-19 pandemic, a significant proportion of cases shed SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) with their faeces. To determine if SARS-CoV-2 RNA was present in sewage during the emergence of COVID-19 in The Netherlands, sewage samples of six cities and the airport were tested using four qRT-PCR assays, three targeting the nucleocapsid gene (N1-N3) and one the envelope gene (E). No SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected on February 6, 3 weeks before the first Dutch case was reported. On March 4/5, one or more gene fragments were detected in sewage of three sites, in concentrations of 2.6-30 gene copies per mL. In Amersfoort, N3 was detected in sewage 6 days before the first cases were reported. As the prevalence of COVID-19 in these cities increased in March, the RNA signal detected by each qRT-PCR assay increased, for N1-N3 up to 790-2200 gene copies per mL. This increase correlated significantly with the increase in reported COVID-19 prevalence. The detection of the virus RNA in sewage, even when the COVID-19 prevalence is low, and the correlation between concentration in sewage and reported prevalence of COVID-19, indicate that sewage surveillance could be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of the virus in the population.
在当前的新冠疫情中，相当一部分病例的粪便中排出严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）。为确定在荷兰新冠疫情出现期间污水中是否存在SARS-CoV-2 RNA，使用四种定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）检测方法对六个城市及机场的污水样本进行了检测，其中三种方法针对核衣壳基因（N1 - N3），一种针对包膜基因（E）。在荷兰报告首例病例前三周的2月6日，未检测到SARS-CoV-2 RNA。3月4日/5日，在三个地点的污水中检测到一个或多个基因片段，浓度为每毫升2.6 - 30个基因拷贝。在阿默斯福特，在报告首例病例的6天前，污水中检测到了N3。随着3月这些城市新冠疫情患病率的上升，每种qRT-PCR检测方法检测到的RNA信号都有所增加，N1 - N3的信号增加到每毫升790 - 2200个基因拷贝。这种增加与报告的新冠疫情患病率的增加显著相关。即使在新冠疫情患病率较低时污水中也能检测到病毒RNA，以及污水中病毒浓度与报告的新冠疫情患病率之间的相关性，表明污水监测可能是监测病毒在人群中传播的一种灵敏工具。
