ReviewWater research2021
Making waves: Defining the lead time of wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19.
Review in Water research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
79 citing papers in PubMed.
- Recommendations for the analysis of leading indicators in epidemic surveillance.PLOS digital health · 2026Review
- Wastewater Surveillance to Track Resurgent Measles Outbreak, Ontario, Canada, 2025.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Coupled epidemiological and wastewater modeling at the urban scale: A case study for Munich.iScience · 2026Article
- Temporal Alignment of Wastewater Signals with Clinical Indicators of Respiratory Illness Postpandemic, Texas, USA.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Correlations between Wastewater Concentrations of Influenza A and Respiratory Syncytial Viruses and Clinical Laboratory Testing and Hospitalization Data, California, USA.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Wastewater surveillance as an early warning indicator for norovirus: Validating wastewater signals against clinical indicators in British Columbia, Canada, 2021-2025.Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada · 2026Article
- Influence of Sampling Strategies and Disease Prevalence on SARS-CoV-2 Detection Dynamics in Wastewater Surveillance.Viruses · 2026Article
- Wastewater-Based Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 for Early Warning of COVID-19 Infection Dynamics.Viruses · 2026Article
- WEPP: Phylogenetic placement achieves near-haplotype resolution in wastewater-based epidemiology.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Implementation of SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance Systems in Germany-Pilot Study in the Federal State of Thuringia.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- A geospatial analysis comparing wastewater-monitored sewershed and statewide populations for 32 states participating in CDC's National Wastewater Surveillance System, 2021-2024.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Localized wastewater surveillance showed correlation but no early warning during Bengaluru's Omicron wave.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Wastewater as an early indicator for short-term forecasting COVID-19 hospitalization in Germany.BMC public health · 2025Article
- How local health departments use wastewater surveillance data for public health planning and intervention in New York State.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A cost-benefit analysis of using wastewater monitoring to guide typhoid vaccine campaigns.Tropical diseases, travel medicine and vaccines · 2025Article
- Hospital wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 identifies intra-hospital dynamics of viral transmission and evolution.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Variability of Clinical Metrics in Small Population Communities Drive Perceived Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance Data Quality: Ontario, Canada-Wide Study.ACS ES&T water · 2025Article
- Optimized Aluminum Hydroxide Adsorption-Precipitation for Improved Viral Detection in Wastewater.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Turning analysis into action: opportunities and challenges in implementing wastewater science for public health decision-making.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may shed the virus in stool before developing symptoms, suggesting that measurements of SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in wastewater could be a "leading indicator" of COVID-19 prevalence. Multiple studies have corroborated the leading indicator concept by showing that the correlation between wastewater measurements and COVID-19 case counts is maximized when case counts are lagged. However, the meaning of "leading indicator" will depend on the specific application of wastewater-based epidemiology, and the correlation analysis is not relevant for all applications. In fact, the quantification of a leading indicator will depend on epidemiological, biological, and health systems factors. Thus, there is no single "lead time" for wastewater-based COVID-19 monitoring. To illustrate this complexity, we enumerate three different applications of wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19: a qualitative "early warning" system; an independent, quantitative estimate of disease prevalence; and a quantitative alert of bursts of disease incidence. The leading indicator concept has different definitions and utility in each application.
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Registered trials
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