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. 2021 Mar 15:760:143350.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143350. Epub 2020 Oct 29.

First confirmed detection of SARS-COV-2 in untreated municipal and aircraft wastewater in Dubai, UAE: The use of wastewater based epidemiology as an early warning tool to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19

Abdulla Albastaki  1 , Mohammed Naji  2 , Reem Lootah  2 , Reem Almeheiri  2 , Hanan Almulla  2 , Iman Almarri  2 , Afra Alreyami  2 , Ahmed Aden  2 , Rashed Alghafri  3
Affiliations

First confirmed detection of SARS-COV-2 in untreated municipal and aircraft wastewater in Dubai, UAE: The use of wastewater based epidemiology as an early warning tool to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19

Abdulla Albastaki et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China and spread to more than 114 countries resulting in a pandemic, which was declared by the WHO in March 2020. Tracking the spread of the virus raised a main concern in every country. Many researches proved the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in stool samples of patients, where the genes of this virus gave a positive signal several days prior to the occurrence of symptoms. The fact of viral shedding in stools provides an advantage in utilizing wastewater systems as a tool to monitor the viral prevalence. We tested more than 2900 municipal wastewater samples coming from 49 distinctive area in Dubai, where 28.6% showed positive results. We also looked into the wastewater samples from 198 commercial aircrafts arriving at Dubai Airport, giving a positive result percentage of 13.6%. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 genes was confirmed using TaqPath™ Covid-19 RT-PCR kit, which targets ORF1ab, N gene and S gene. This project shows the significance of utilizing wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) in monitoring the prevalence of various infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, which can assist the decision makers to determine the level of precautionary measures according to the areas of the outbreak. With this in mind, pricewise, WBE is considered cost-effective when comparing to clinical nasal swabs.

Keywords: Aircraft sewage; Arab country; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Wastewater-based epidemiology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Acknowledgments and declaration of competing interest The authors wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and would like to acknowledge and thank Dubai Municipality, Dubai Airports and other governmental entities in Dubai who played a key role in enabling this project.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
In the first stage of this project, out of 27 samples tested, 6 samples showed a positive signal to SARS-CoV-2 genes, all coming from the same two stations (stations A and F). The cycle threshold showed to increase in value, implying a decrease in the concentrations of the viral load within the samples throughout the short period of collection.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The results of the second stage of this project showed a direct correlation with the number of real COVID-19 cases recorded in the city of Dubai. During the 3-month period, the Ct values showed an increasing trend, implying a decrease in the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 genes in wastewater samples, which corresponds to the fact of the decrease in the record of real cases in the city.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The results of second stage displayed as a heat map of the whole city over 3 months' period. The results showed decreasing of viral load concentration over the 3-months period. Heat maps provide a visualization of the overall prevalence throughout the city. Dark red color represents high concentration of viral load; yellow color represents moderate concentration of viral load; and green color represents low concentration of viral load. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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