Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 878, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162953
Keywords
COVID-19; Wastewater-based epidemiology; SARS-CoV-2 detection; Systematic review; Wastewater; Epidemiological modeling
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On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is primarily transmitted through respiratory droplets and shed in bodily fluids. Wastewater-based epidemiology can monitor viral pathogens in the population and predict outbreaks, but lacks standardization in analytical procedures. RT-qPCR is the most commonly used technique to detect viral RNA in wastewater samples, and the solid portion of wastewater may be a more convenient matrix for future investigations due to higher viral load.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), whose causative agent is the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a pandemic. This virus is predominantly transmitted via respiratory droplets and shed via sputum, saliva, urine, and stool. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been able to monitor the circulation of viral pathogens in the population. This tool demands both in-lab and computational work to be meaningful for, among other purposes, the prediction of outbreaks. In this context, we present a systematic review that organizes and discusses laboratory procedures for SARS-CoV-2 RNA quantification from a wastewater matrix, along with modeling techniques applied to the development of WBE for COVID-19 surveillance. The goal of this review is to present the current panorama of WBE operational aspects as well as to identify current challenges related to it. Our review was conducted in a reproducible manner by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for systematic reviews. We identified a lack of standardization in wastewater analytical procedures. Regardless, the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) approach was the most reported technique employed to detect and quantify viral RNA in wastewater samples. As a more convenient sample matrix, we suggest the solid portion of wastewater to be considered in future investigations due to its higher viral load compared to the liquid fraction. Regarding the
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