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Ram JL, Shuster W, Gable L, Turner CL, Hartrick J, Vasquez AA, West NW, Bahmani A, David RE. Wastewater Monitoring for Infectious Disease: Intentional Relationships between Academia, the Private Sector, and Local Health Departments for Public Health Preparedness. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:6651. [PMID: 37681792 PMCID: PMC10487196 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20176651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2023] [Revised: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 09/09/2023]
Abstract
The public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic stimulated stakeholders from diverse disciplines and institutions to establish new collaborations to produce informed public health responses to the disease. Wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19 grew quickly during the pandemic and required the rapid implementation of such collaborations. The objective of this article is to describe the challenges and results of new relationships developed in Detroit, MI, USA among a medical school and an engineering college at an academic institution (Wayne State University), the local health department (Detroit Health Department), and an environmental services company (LimnoTech) to utilize markers of the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, in wastewater for the goal of managing COVID-19 outbreaks. Our collaborative team resolved questions related to sewershed selection, communication of results, and public health responses and addressed technical challenges that included ground-truthing the sewer maps, overcoming supply chain issues, improving the speed and sensitivity of measurements, and training new personnel to deal with a new disease under pandemic conditions. Recognition of our complementary roles and clear communication among the partners enabled city-wide wastewater data to inform public health responses within a few months of the availability of funding in 2020, and to make improvements in sensitivity and understanding to be made as the pandemic progressed and evolved. As a result, the outbreaks of COVID-19 in Detroit in fall and winter 2021-2022 (corresponding to Delta and Omicron variant outbreaks) were tracked in 20 sewersheds. Data comparing community- and hospital-associated sewersheds indicate a one- to two-week advance warning in the community of subsequent peaks in viral markers in hospital sewersheds. The new institutional relationships impelled by the pandemic provide a good basis for continuing collaborations to utilize wastewater-based human and pathogen data for improving the public health in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey L. Ram
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA; (A.A.V.)
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
| | - William Shuster
- College of Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA;
| | - Lance Gable
- Law School, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
| | | | | | - Adrian A. Vasquez
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA; (A.A.V.)
| | - Nicholas W. West
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA; (A.A.V.)
| | - Azadeh Bahmani
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA; (A.A.V.)
| | - Randy E. David
- Detroit Health Department, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
- Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
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Coccia M. High potential of technology to face new respiratory viruses: mechanical ventilation devices for effective healthcare to next pandemic emergencies. TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY 2023; 73:102233. [PMID: 36993793 PMCID: PMC10028215 DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Some countries in the presence of unforeseen Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have experienced lower total deaths, though higher numbers of COVID-19 related infections. Results here suggest that one of the explanations is the critical role of ventilator technology in clinical health environment to cope with the initial stage of COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Statistical evidence shows that a large number of ventilators or breathing devices in countries (26.76 units per 100,000 inhabitants) is associated with a fatality rate of 1.44% (December 2020), whereas a higher fatality rate given by 2.46% is in nations with lower numbers of ventilator devices (10.38 average units per 100,000 people). These findings suggest that a large number of medical ventilators in clinical setting has a high potential for more efficient healthcare and improves the effective preparedness of crisis management to cope with new respiratory pandemic diseases in society. Hence, a forward-thinking and technology-oriented strategy in healthcare sector, based on investments in high-tech ventilator devices and other new medical technologies, can help clinicians deliver effective care and reduce negative effects of present and future respiratory infectious diseases, in particular when new drugs and appropriate treatments are missing in clinical environment to face unknown respiratory viral agents .
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario Coccia
- CNR -- National Research Council of Italy, Research Area of the National Research Council, Strada delle Cacce, 73-10135, Turin, Italy
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