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Review
. 2021 Mar 20:761:143192.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143192. Epub 2020 Oct 24.

SARS-CoV-2 in hospital wastewater during outbreak of COVID-19: A review on detection, survival and disinfection technologies

Mounia Achak  1 , Soufiane Alaoui Bakri  2 , Younes Chhiti  3 , Fatima Ezzahrae M'hamdi Alaoui  2 , Noureddine Barka  4 , Wafaa Boumya  5
Affiliations
Review

SARS-CoV-2 in hospital wastewater during outbreak of COVID-19: A review on detection, survival and disinfection technologies

Mounia Achak et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

Currently, the apparition of new SARS-CoV, known as SARS-CoV-2, affected more than 34 million people and causing high death rates worldwide. Recently, several studies reported SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA) in hospital wastewater. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted between humans via respiratory droplets, close contact and fomites. Fecal-oral transmission is considered also as a potential route of transmission since several scientists confirmed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in feces of infected patients, therefore its transmission via feces in aquatic environment, particularly hospital wastewater. Hospitals are one of the important classes of polluting sectors around the world. It was identified that hospital wastewater contains hazardous elements and a wide variety of microbial pathogens and viruses. Therefore, this may potentially pose a significant risk of public health and environment infection. This study reported an introduction about the Physical-chemical and microbiological characterization of hospital wastewater, which can be a route to identify potential technology to reduce the impact of hospital contaminants before evacuation. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in aqueous environment was reviewed. The knowledge of the detection and survival of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and hospital wastewater were described to understand the different routes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, which is also useful to avoid the outbreak of CoV-19. In addition, disinfection technologies used commonly for deactivation of SARS-CoV-2 were highlighted. It was revealed that, chlorine-containing disinfectants are the most commonly used disinfectants in this field of research. Meanwhile, other efficient technologies must be developed and improved to avoid another wave of the pandemic of COVID-19 infections.

Keywords: Detection; Disinfection technologies; Hospital wastewater; SARS-CoV-2; Survival; Transmission.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Collection of domestic, industrial and hospital effluents to wastewater treatment plant.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Structure of enveloped and nonenveloped SARS-CoV-2.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via respiratory droplets and aerosol.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Fecal transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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