ArticleThe Science of the total environment2022
SARS-CoV-2 RNA in urban wastewater samples to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic in Lombardy, Italy (March-June 2020).
Article in The Science of the total environment, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Methodological Approaches to SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance.Viruses · 2026Pooled it
- 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
- Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Infectious Diseases: A New Trick for an Old Threat.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Review
- Seasonal Variations in the Occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Recovered from Wastewater Treatment Facilities (WWTFs) Within South Africa.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Article
- Evaluating Interlaboratory Variability in Wastewater-Based COVID-19 Surveillance.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Multi-tiered strategy for large-scale wastewater detection of SARS-CoV-2 in low-case settings provides confidence for public health actions.Journal of water and health · 2025Article
- Article
- Seasonal Prevalence and Detection of Enteric and Respiratory Viruses in Wastewater and Hospitalized Children with Acute Gastroenteritis.Current microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- ern: AnPloS one · 2024Article
- Article
- Wastewater-based epidemiology approach: The learning lessons from COVID-19 pandemic and the development of novel guidelines for future pandemics.Chemosphere · 2023Article
- Molecular evidence for SARS-CoV-2 in samples collected from patients with morbilliform eruptions since late 2019 in Lombardy, northern Italy.Environmental research · 2022Article
- Wastewater Surveillance Captured an Increase in Adenovirus Circulation in Milan (Italy) during the First Quarter of 2022.Viruses · 2022Article
- Year-long wastewater monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 signals in combined and separate sanitary sewers.Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation · 2022Article
- Suspect screening of wastewaters to trace anti-COVID-19 drugs: Potential adverse effects on aquatic environment.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Wastewater-based epidemiology for early warning of SARS-COV-2 circulation: A pilot study conducted in Sicily, Italy.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2022Article
- Waiting for the truth: is reluctance in accepting an early origin hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 delaying our understanding of viral emergence?BMJ global health · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Wastewater-based viral surveillance was proposed as a promising approach to monitor the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in the general population. The aim of this study was to develop an analytical method to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in urban wastewater, and apply it to follow the trends of epidemic in the framework of a surveillance network in the Lombardy region (Northern Italy). This area was the first hotspot of COVID-19 in Europe and was severely affected. Composite 24 h samples were collected weekly in eight cities from end-March to mid-June 2020 (first peak of the pandemic). The method developed and optimized, involved virus concentration using PEG centrifugation, and one-step real-time RT-PCR for analysis. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was identified in 65 (61%) out of 107 samples, and the viral concentrations (up to 2.1 E + 05 copies/L) were highest in March-April. By mid-June, wastewater samples tested negative in all the cities corresponding to the very low number of cases recorded in the same period. Viral loads were calculated considering the wastewater daily flow rate and the population served by each wastewater treatment plant, and were used for inter- city comparison. The highest viral loads were found in Brembate, Ranica and Lodi corresponding to the hotspots of the first peak of pandemic. The pattern of decrease of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater was closely comparable to the decline of active COVID-19 cases in the population, reflecting the effect of lock-down. This study tested wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 to follow the pandemic trends in one of most affected areas worldwide, demonstrating that it can integrate ongoing virological surveillance of COVID-19, providing information from both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, and monitoring the effect of health interventions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.