ArticleThe Science of the total environment2022
Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance.
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 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Have genetic targets for faecal pollution diagnostics and source tracking revolutionized water quality analysis yet?FEMS microbiology reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Assessing Urban Ditches for Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in Low Sanitation Areas in Southeastern Brazil.Food and environmental virology · 2026Article
- Environmental Dissemination of SARS-CoV-2: An Analysis Employing Crassphage and Next-Generation Sequencing Protocols.Food and environmental virology · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 in the environment: Contamination routes, detection methods, persistence and removal in wastewater treatment plants.The Science of the total environment · 2023Review
- Exposure of adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) to SARS-CoV-2 at predicted environmentally relevant concentrations: Outspreading warns about ecotoxicological risks to freshwater fish.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Presence and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in aquatic environments: A mini-review.Current opinion in environmental science & health · 2022Review
- Application of human RNase P normalization for the realistic estimation of SARS-CoV-2 viral load in wastewater: A perspective from Qatar wastewater surveillance.Environmental technology & innovation · 2022Article
- Wastewater, waste, and water-based epidemiology (WWW-BE): A novel hypothesis and decision-support tool to unravel COVID-19 in low-income settings?The Science of the total environment · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of this work was to evaluate if rivers could be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Five sampling points from three rivers (AR-1 and AR-2 in Arenales River, MR-1 and MR-2 in Mojotoro River, and CR in La Caldera River) from Salta (Argentina), two of them receiving discharges from wastewater plants (WWTP), were monitored from July to December 2020. Fifteen water samples from each point (75 in total) were collected and characterized physico-chemically and microbiologically and SARS-CoV-2 was quantified by RT-qPCR. Also, two targets linked to human contributions, human polyomavirus (HPyV) and RNase P, were quantified and used to normalize SARS-CoV-2 concentration, which was compared to reported COVID-19 cases. Statistical analyses allowed us to verify the correlation between SARS-CoV-2 and the concentration of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), as well as to find similarities and differences between sampling points. La Caldera River showed the best water quality; FIBs were within acceptable limits for recreational activities. Mojotoro River's water quality was not affected by the northern WWTP of the city. Instead, Arenales River presented the poorest water quality; at AR-2 was negatively affected by the discharges of the southern WWTP, which contributed to significant increase of fecal contamination. SARS-CoV-2 was found in about half of samples in low concentrations in La Caldera and Mojotoro Rivers, while it was high and persistent in Arenales River. No human tracers were detected in CR, only HPyV was found in MR-1, MR-2 and AR-1, and both were quantified in AR-2. The experimental and normalized viral concentrations strongly correlated with reported COVID-19 cases; thus, Arenales River at AR-2 reflected the epidemiological situation of the city. This is the first study showing the dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 concentration in an urban river highly impacted by wastewater and proved that can be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to support health authorities.
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