Journal
JOURNAL OF WATER AND HEALTH
Volume 20, Issue 9, Pages 1284-1313Publisher
IWA PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.2166/wh.2022.026
Keywords
antimicrobial resistance; chemicals; metabolites; pathogens; public health wastewater-based epidemiology
Categories
Funding
- United Kingdom Government (Department of Health and Social Care)
- Welsh Government (Technical Advisory Cell) [NE/V010441/1]
- National COVID-19 Wastewater Epidemiology Surveillance programme UKRI-NERC COVID Response [NE/V010441/1]
- 'Building an Early Warning System for community-wide infectious disease spread: SARS-CoV-2 tracking in Africa via environment fingerprinting' GCRF/Newton Fund [EP/V028499/1]
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Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a method used to observe patterns in illicit drug use, poliovirus, and SARS-CoV-2. It has the potential to expand targets and applications for public health protection. However, there are barriers and opportunities that need to be addressed to fully utilize WBE in public health.
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an unobtrusive method used to observe patterns in illicit drug use, poliovirus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The pandemic and need for surveillance measures have led to the rapid acceleration of WBE research and development globally. With the infrastructure available to monitor SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater in 58 countries globally, there is potential to expand targets and applications for public health protection, such as other viral pathogens, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), pharmaceutical consumption, or exposure to chemical pollutants. Some applications have been explored in academic research but are not used to inform public health decision-making. We reflect on the current knowledge of WBE for these applications and identify barriers and opportunities for expanding beyond SARS-CoV-2. This paper critically reviews the applications of WBE for public health and identifies the important research gaps for WBE to be a useful tool in public health. It considers possible uses for pathogenic viruses, AMR, and chemicals. It summarises the current evidence on the following: (1) the presence of markers in stool and urine; (2) environmental factors influencing persistence of markers in wastewater; (3) methods for sample collection and storage; (4) prospective methods for detection and quantification; (5) reducing uncertainties; and (6) further considerations for public health use.
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