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Review
. 2021 Jul 15:414:125439.
doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125439. Epub 2021 Feb 19.

Occurrence of various viruses and recent evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater systems

Waqar Ali  1 , Hua Zhang  2 , Zhenglu Wang  3 , Chuanyu Chang  1 , Asif Javed  4 , Kamran Ali  5 , Wei Du  6 , Nabeel Khan Niazi  7 , Kang Mao  8 , Zhugen Yang  9
Affiliations
Review

Occurrence of various viruses and recent evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater systems

Waqar Ali et al. J Hazard Mater. .

Abstract

Viruses are omnipresent and persistent in wastewater, which poses a risk to human health. In this review, we summarise the different qualitative and quantitative methods for virus analysis in wastewater and systematically discuss the spatial distribution and temporal patterns of various viruses (i.e., enteric viruses, Caliciviridae (Noroviruses (NoVs)), Picornaviridae (Enteroviruses (EVs)), Hepatitis A virus (HAV)), and Adenoviridae (Adenoviruses (AdVs))) in wastewater systems. Then we critically review recent SARS-CoV-2 studies to understand the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic through wastewater surveillance. SARS-CoV-2 genetic material has been detected in wastewater from France, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain, Turkey, India, Pakistan, China, and the USA. We then discuss the utility of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to estimate the occurrence, distribution, and genetic diversity of these viruses and generate human health risk assessment. Finally, we not only promote the prevention of viral infectious disease transmission through wastewater but also highlight the potential use of WBE as an early warning system for public health assessment.

Keywords: Human health hazards; SARS-CoV-2; Spatial distribution; Viruses; Wastewater.

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Conflict of interest statement

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

ga1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Spatial patterns and diversity of human viruses in wastewater systems worldwide (Points on the map do not correspond to precise geographical locations).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Positive detection rates of different human viruses in effluent wastewater systems worldwide.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Conceptual model of the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) surveillance and early warning system for infectious disease epidemics caused by SARS-CoV-2 pathogens (Mao et al., 2020, Mao et al., 2020).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Spatial distribution of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater systems worldwide.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
SARS-CoV-2 detected in effluent wastewater systems in different countries located on the American, Asian, and European continents and the positive detection rates (A). Global positive detection rate (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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