ArticleWater research2022
Sensitivity of wastewater-based epidemiology for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a low prevalence setting.
Article in Water research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Wastewater Surveillance for Early Warning of Infectious Disease Outbreaks: A Systematic Review of Evidence and Implications for One Health Surveillance.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Assessing the sensitivity and predictive value of wastewater in detection of Hepatitis A cases in San Diego County.PloS one · 2026Article
- Wastewater-based reproduction rates for epidemic curve reconstruction.Biostatistics (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Utilizing wastewater surveillance to model behavioural responses and prevent healthcare overload during "Disease X" outbreaks.Emerging microbes & infections · 2025Article
- Post-recovery viral shedding shapes wastewater-based epidemiological inferences.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Advances in Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Pandemic Surveillance: Methodological Frameworks and Future Perspectives.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Measuring SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Bangkok wastewater treatment plants and estimating infected population after fully opening the country in 2023, Thailand.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Surveillance in France: The SUM'EAU Network.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Article
- Academic institution extensive, building-by-building wastewater-based surveillance platform for SARS-CoV-2 monitoring, clinical data correlation, and potential national proxy.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Inter-institutional laboratory standardization for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance through wastewater-based epidemiology applied to Mexico City.IJID regions · 2024Article
- Monitoring an Emergent Pathogen at Low Incidence in Wastewater Using qPCR: Mpox in Switzerland.Food and environmental virology · 2024Review
- Jointly estimating epidemiological dynamics of Covid-19 from case and wastewater data in Aotearoa New Zealand.Communications medicine · 2024Article
- Estimating the COVID-19 prevalence from wastewater.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- SARS-CoV-2 viral titer measurements in Ontario, Canada wastewaters throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific data · 2024Article
- Statistical analysis of three data sources for Covid-19 monitoring in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in the Czech Republic: Spatial and temporal differences in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations and relationship to clinical data and wastewater parameters.Water research X · 2024Article
- Fate-and-transport modeling of SARS-CoV-2 for rural wastewater-based epidemiology application benefit.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Wastewater-based reproduction numbers and projections of COVID-19 cases in three areas in Japan, November 2021 to December 2022.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2024Article
- Environmental surveillance for COVID-19 using SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration in wastewater - a study in District East, Karachi, Pakistan.The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
To assist public health responses to COVID-19, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is being utilised internationally to monitor SARS-CoV-2 infections at the community level. However, questions remain regarding the sensitivity of WBE and its use in low prevalence settings. In this study, we estimated the total number of COVID-19 cases required for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater. To do this, we leveraged a unique situation where, over a 4-month period, all symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, in a population of approximately 120,000, were precisely known and mainly located in a single managed isolation and quarantine facility (MIQF) building. From 9 July to 6 November 2020, 24-hr composite wastewater samples (n = 113) were collected daily from the sewer outside the MIQF, and from the municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) located 5 km downstream. New daily COVID-19 cases at the MIQF ranged from 0 to 17, and for most of the study period there were no cases outside the MIQF identified. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 54.0% (61/113) at the WWTP, compared to 95.6% (108/113) at the MIQF. We used logistic regression to estimate the shedding of SARS-CoV-2 RNA into wastewater based on four infectious shedding models. With a total of 5 and 10 COVID-19 infectious cases per 100,000 population (0.005% and 0.01% prevalence) the predicated probability of SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection at the WWTP was estimated to be 28 and 41%, respectively. When a proportional shedding model was used, this increased to 58% and 87% for 5 and 10 cases, respectively. In other words, when 10 individuals were actively shedding SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a catchment of 100,000 individuals, there was a high likelihood of detecting viral RNA in wastewater. SARS-CoV-2 RNA detections at the WWTP were associated with increasing COVID-19 cases. Our results show that WBE provides a reliable and sensitive platform for detecting infections at the community scale, even when case prevalence is low, and can be of use as an early warning system for community outbreaks.
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