ArticleThe Science of the total environment2021
The fate of SARS-COV-2 in WWTPS points out the sludge line as a suitable spot for detection of COVID-19.
Article in The Science of the total environment, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 123 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
123 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 222 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recent progress on wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19 surveillance: A systematic review of analytical procedures and epidemiological modeling.The Science of the total environment · 2023Pooled it
- Detecting SARS-CoV-2 in sludge samples: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2023Pooled it
- Occurrence of viruses in sewage sludge: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- Wastewater surveillance to infer COVID-19 transmission: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste: A review about virus surveillance, infectivity, and inactivation.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- Assessing Urban Ditches for Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in Low Sanitation Areas in Southeastern Brazil.Food and environmental virology · 2026Article
- Integrated monitoring of enveloped viruses in hospital environments: Detection, persistence, and implications for infection control.PloS one · 2026Article
- Optimization of the Primary Sludge Processing Method for Wastewater Genomic Surveillance of SARS-CoV‑2.ACS ES&T water · 2025Article
- Retrieval of carbon and inorganic phosphorus during hydrothermal carbonization: ANN and RSM modeling.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Tracking epidemic viruses in wastewaters.Microbial biotechnology · 2024Review
- Urban Wastewater-Based Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Virus: A Two-Year Study Conducted in City of Patras, Greece.Food and environmental virology · 2024Article
- Article
- Advancing Public Health Surveillance: Integrating Modeling and GIS in the Wastewater-Based Epidemiology of Viruses, a Narrative Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Tracking SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in wastewater in Tunisia.Journal of water and health · 2024Article
- First Molecular Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage and Wastewater in Ghana.BioMed research international · 2024Article
- SARS-CoV-2 detection and inactivation in water and wastewater: review on analytical methods, limitations and future research recommendations.Emerging microbes & infections · 2023Review
- A long-term passive sampling approach for wastewater-based monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in Leipzig, Germany.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- An efficient method to enhance recovery and detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater.Journal of environmental sciences (China) · 2023Article
- Environmental Stability and Transmissibility of Enveloped Viruses at Varied Animate and Inanimate Interfaces.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Review
- SARS-CoV-2 in the environment: Contamination routes, detection methods, persistence and removal in wastewater treatment plants.The Science of the total environment · 2023Review
63 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 genetic material is detectable in the faeces of a considerable part of COVID-19 cases and hence, in municipal wastewater. This fact was confirmed early during the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and prompted several studies that proposed monitoring its incidence by wastewater. This paper studies the fate of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in wastewater treatment plants using RT-qPCR with a two-fold goal: i) to check its presence in the water effluent and in the produced sludge and ii) based on the understanding of the virus particles fate, to identify the most suitable spots for detecting the incidence of COVID-19 and monitor its evolution. On the grounds of the affinity of enveloped virus towards biosolids, we hypothesized that the sludge line acts as a concentrator of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material. Sampling several spots in primary, secondary and sludge treatment at the Ourense (Spain) WWTP in 5 different days showed that, in effect, most of SARS-CoV-2 particles cannot be detected in the water effluent as they are retained by the sludge line. We identified the sludge thickener as a suitable spot for detecting SARS-CoV-2 particles thanks to its higher solids concentration (more virus particles) and longer residence time (less sensitive to dilution caused by precipitation). These findings could be useful to develop a suitable strategy for early warning of COVID-19 incidence based on WWTP monitoring.
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