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Kappus-Kron H, Chatila DA, MacLachlan AM, Pulido N, Yang N, Larsen DA. Precision public health in schools enabled by wastewater surveillance: A case study of COVID-19 in an Upstate New York middle-high school campus during the 2021-2022 academic year. PLOS GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH 2024; 4:e0001803. [PMID: 38198477 PMCID: PMC10781135 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
Wastewater surveillance provides a cost-effective and non-invasive way to gain an understanding of infectious disease transmission including for COVID-19. We analyzed wastewater samples from one school site in Jefferson County, New York during the 2021-2022 school year. We tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA once weekly and compared those results with the clinical COVID-19 cases in the school. The amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA correlated with the number of incident COVID-19 cases, with the best correlation being one day lead time between the wastewater sample and the number of COVID-19 cases. The sensitivity and positive predictive value of wastewater surveillance to correctly identify any COVID-19 cases up to 7 days after a wastewater sample collection ranged from 82-100% and 59-78% respectively, depending upon the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the sample. The specificity and negative predictive value of wastewater surveillance to correctly identify when the school was without a case of COVID-19 ranged from 67-78% and 70-80%, respectively, depending upon the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the sample. The lead time observed in this study suggests that transmission might occur within a school before SARS-CoV-2 is identified in wastewater. However, wastewater surveillance should still be considered as a potential means of understanding school-level COVID-19 trends and is a way to enable precision public health approaches tailored to the epidemiologic situation in an individual school.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haley Kappus-Kron
- Center for Environmental Health, New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York, United States of America
- CDC Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Dana Ahmad Chatila
- Department of Public Health, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, United States of America
| | | | - Nicole Pulido
- Department of Public Health, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, United States of America
| | - Nan Yang
- Department of Public Health, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, United States of America
| | - David A. Larsen
- Department of Public Health, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, United States of America
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Zafeiriadou A, Kaltsis L, Kostakis M, Kapes V, Thomaidis NS, Markou A. Wastewater surveillance of the most common circulating respiratory viruses in Athens: The impact of COVID-19 on their seasonality. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 900:166136. [PMID: 37567285 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2023] [Revised: 08/06/2023] [Accepted: 08/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023]
Abstract
Due to governments' actions to contain the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the activity of common circulating respiratory viruses was significantly disrupted after the COVID-19 pandemic and thorough surveillance of respiratory pathogens was considered essential worldwide. Wastewater-based epidemiology has proven to be a valuable tool, that provides complementary information on disease outbreaks and is increasingly used to study the infection dynamics of other viruses, apart from SARS-CoV-2. The aims of the present study were the detection of four commonly circulating respiratory viruses: SARS-CoV-2, influenza A, B and Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), the evaluation of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on their seasonality and the determination of the possible common trends in the viral load of these viruses in the wastewater of the Attica region. A standardized and validated concentration and extraction protocol was used, generic for all four viruses, followed by Reverse Transcription quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) assays. The study proved that there was a prolonged period when all four viruses circulated in the population and an early outbreak of seasonal influenza and RSV in 2022-2023, compared to data from the pre-COVID-19 period. SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and RSV concentrations showed peak levels during December, followed by a slight decline in influenza A concentrations, followed by steady increase of influenza B concentrations in January 2023. SARS-CoV-2 was the dominant virus throughout the whole study period. This is the first study in Greece that investigated the most common circulating viruses simultaneously and in one of the largest timelines, providing crucial information about their infection dynamics during a period when an outbreak of respiratory diseases was declared by the National Public Health Organization. Presented results highlight the establishment of environmental surveillance as a non-invasive and complementary virus outbreak monitoring tool and the importance of influenza A, B and RSV integration into a wastewater-based surveillance system to help in disease management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anastasia Zafeiriadou
- Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus, Zografou, 15771, Athens, Greece
| | - Lazaros Kaltsis
- Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus, Zografou, 15771, Athens, Greece
| | - Marios Kostakis
- Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus, Zografou, 15771, Athens, Greece
| | - Vasileios Kapes
- Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus, Zografou, 15771, Athens, Greece
| | - Nikolaos S Thomaidis
- Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus, Zografou, 15771, Athens, Greece
| | - Athina Markou
- Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University Campus, Zografou, 15771, Athens, Greece.
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Harrison K, Snead D, Kilts A, Ammerman ML, Wigginton KR. The Protective Effect of Virus Capsids on RNA and DNA Virus Genomes in Wastewater. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:13757-13766. [PMID: 37656816 PMCID: PMC10516120 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c03814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2023] [Revised: 08/08/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/03/2023]
Abstract
Virus concentrations measured in municipal wastewater help inform both the water treatment necessary to protect human health and wastewater-based epidemiology. Wastewater measurements are typically PCR-based, and interpreting gene copy concentrations requires an understanding of the form and stability of the nucleic acids. Here, we study the persistence of model virus genomes in wastewater, the protective effects provided by the virus capsids, and the relative decay rates of the genome and infectious viruses. In benchtop batch experiments in wastewater influent at 25 °C, extraviral (+)ssRNA and dsDNA amplicons degraded by 90% within 15-19 min and 1.6-1.9 h, respectively. When encapsidated, the T90 for MS2 (+)ssRNA increased by 424× and the T90 for T4 dsDNA increased by 52×. The (+)ssRNA decay rates were similar for a range of amplicon sizes. For our model phages MS2 and T4, the nucleic acid signal in untreated wastewater disappeared shortly after the viruses lost infectivity. Combined, these results suggest that most viral genome copies measured in wastewater are encapsidated, that measured concentrations are independent of assay amplicon sizes, and that the virus genome decay rates of nonenveloped (i.e., naked) viruses are similar to inactivation rates. These findings are valuable for the interpretation of wastewater virus measurements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine
R. Harrison
- Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Delaney Snead
- Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Anna Kilts
- Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Michelle L. Ammerman
- Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Krista R. Wigginton
- Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
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