Environmental Health Institute, National Environment Agency, Singapore.
Environmental Health Institute, National Environment Agency, Singapore.
EBioMedicine. 2024 Mar;101:105020. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105020. Epub 2024 Feb 21.
In June 2023, a local cluster of 15 Zika cases was reported in a neighbourhood in Northeastern Singapore. The last significant local transmission of Zika virus (ZIKV) with more than 450 cases was in 2016-2017. To monitor the situation and mitigate further transmission, case, entomological and wastewater-based surveillance were carried out.
Primary healthcare practitioners and the community were alerted to encourage timely case identification. Surveillance was enhanced through testing of Aedes mosquitoes collected from the National Gravitrap surveillance system, and wastewater samples were collected from a network of autosamplers deployed at manholes across the country.
ZIKV RNA was detected in mosquito pools (3/43; 7%) and individual mosquitoes (3/82; 3.7%) captured, and in wastewater samples (13/503) collected from the vicinity of the cluster of cases. Respective samples collected from other sites across the country were negative. The peak detection of ZIKV RNA in mosquitoes and wastewater coincided temporally with the peak in the number of cases in the area (15-25 May 2023).
The restriction of ZIKV signals from wastewater and mosquitoes within the neighbourhood suggested limited ZIKV transmission. The subsequent waning of signals suggested effectiveness of control measures. We demonstrate the utility of wastewater-based surveillance of ZIKV, which complements existing case- and entomological-based surveillance. The non-intrusive approach is particularly useful to monitor diseases such as Zika, which generally causes silent or mild infections, but may cause severe outcomes such as congenital Zika syndrome.
This study was funded by Singapore's Ministry of Finance and the National Environment Agency, Singapore.
2023 年 6 月，新加坡东北部一个社区报告了 15 例寨卡病例本地聚集。上一次有超过 450 例寨卡病毒（ZIKV）本地传播是在 2016-2017 年。为了监测疫情并减轻进一步传播的风险，开展了病例、媒介和基于污水的监测。
初级保健医生和社区被提醒鼓励及时发现病例。通过对从国家重力诱捕监测系统收集的伊蚊进行检测，以及从全国部署在沙井的自动采样器网络收集污水样本，加强了监测。
在捕获的蚊子（3/43；7%）和个体蚊子（3/82；3.7%）以及从病例聚集区附近采集的污水样本（13/503）中检测到 ZIKV RNA。从全国其他地点采集的相应样本均为阴性。蚊子和污水中 ZIKV RNA 的峰值检测与该地区病例数量的峰值（2023 年 5 月 15 日至 25 日）时间上相吻合。
污水和蚊子中 ZIKV 信号局限于该社区内，表明传播有限。信号随后减弱表明控制措施有效。我们展示了基于污水的 ZIKV 监测的效用，该监测补充了现有的基于病例和媒介的监测。这种非侵入性的方法特别有助于监测寨卡等疾病，这些疾病通常引起无症状或轻度感染，但可能导致严重后果，如先天性寨卡综合征。
本研究由新加坡财政部和新加坡国家环境局资助。
