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Review
. 2021 Jun 20:774:145721.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145721. Epub 2021 Feb 9.

A critical review on SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in water and wastewater. What do we know?

Alexandre Giacobbo  1 , Marco Antônio Siqueira Rodrigues  2 , Jane Zoppas Ferreira  3 , Andréa Moura Bernardes  4 , Maria Norberta de Pinho  5
Affiliations
Review

A critical review on SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in water and wastewater. What do we know?

Alexandre Giacobbo et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak circulating the world is far from being controlled, and possible contamination routes are still being studied. There are no confirmed cases yet, but little is known about the infection possibility via contact with sewage or contaminated water as well as with aerosols generated during the pumping and treatment of these aqueous matrices. Therefore, this article presents a literature review on the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human excreta and its pathways through the sewer system and wastewater treatment plants until it reaches the water bodies, highlighting their occurrence and infectivity in sewage and natural water. Research lines are still indicated, which we believe are important for improving the detection, quantification, and mainly the infectivity analyzes of SARS-CoV-2 and other enveloped viruses in sewage and natural water. In fact, up till now, no case of transmission via contact with sewage or contaminated water has been reported and the few studies conducted with these aqueous matrices have not detected infectious viruses. On the other hand, studies are showing that SARS-CoV-2 can remain viable, i.e., infectious, for up to 4.3 and 6 days in sewage and water, respectively, and that other species of coronavirus may remain viable in these aqueous matrices for more than one year, depending on the sample conditions. These are strong pieces of evidence that the contamination mediated by contact with sewage or contaminated water cannot be ruled out, even because other more resistant and infectious mutations of SARS-CoV-2 may appear.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Fecal-oral contamination; Infectivity; SARS-CoV-2; Sewage.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Viral structure of a coronavirus particle.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mechanism of infection of the SARS-CoV-2 in human cells. The SARS-CoV-2 S protein binds with the ACE2 receptor on the host cell and is subsequently cleaved at the S1/S2 and S2′ sites by the TMPRSS2 protease. This activates the S2 subunit and leads to a fusion between the viral membrane and that of the host cell.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The main routes for SARS-CoV-2 to reach the watercourses.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Visualization of Coronaviruses with transmission electron microscopy: A) MERS-CoV, B) SARS-CoV-2, and C) Human Coronavirus 229E.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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