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Review
. 2023 Jan 5:12:978643.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.978643. eCollection 2022.

COVID-19 surveillance in wastewater: An epidemiological tool for the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2

Sajida Maryam  1 , Ihtisham Ul Haq  1   2   3 , Galal Yahya  4 , Mehboob Ul Haq  1 , Abdelazeem M Algammal  5 , Sameh Saber  6 , Simona Cavalu  7
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 surveillance in wastewater: An epidemiological tool for the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2

Sajida Maryam et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted a lot of questions globally regarding the range of information about the virus's possible routes of transmission, diagnostics, and therapeutic tools. Worldwide studies have pointed out the importance of monitoring and early surveillance techniques based on the identification of viral RNA in wastewater. These studies indicated the presence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in human feces, which is shed via excreta including mucus, feces, saliva, and sputum. Subsequently, they get dumped into wastewater, and their presence in wastewater provides a possibility of using it as a tool to help prevent and eradicate the virus. Its monitoring is still done in many regions worldwide and serves as an early "warning signal"; however, a lot of limitations of wastewater surveillance have also been identified.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; COVID-19 surveillance system; early warning system; point-of-care diagnostics; wastewater surveillance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Steps of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) by testing wastewater to monitor the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2..
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic illustration of the reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification and vertical flow visualization (RT-LAMP-VF) assay. Figure adopted from Huang et al. (2018). (A) RT-LAMP was executed in a water bath at a constant temperature. (B) The products of RT-LAMP were detected by using a vertical flow visualization strip.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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