ArticleFrontiers in public health2024
Use of wastewater from passenger ships to assess the movement of COVID-19 and other pathogenic viruses across maritime international boundaries.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic review on the laboratory methodology for conducting wastewater and environmental surveillance forFrontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- "Navigating Healthy Waters": monitoring ship wastewater as a key defense against infectious diseases-a pilot study on a Mediterranean seaport.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: The worldwide spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic has been driven by international travel. This has led to the desire to develop surveillance approaches which can estimate the rate of import of pathogenic organisms across international borders. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of wastewater-based approaches for the surveillance of viral pathogens on commercial short-haul (3.5 h transit time) roll-on/roll-off passenger/freight ferries operating between the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Methods: Samples of toilet-derived wastewater (blackwater) were collected from two commercial ships over a 4-week period and analysed for SARS-CoV-2, influenza, enterovirus, norovirus, the faecal-marker virus crAssphage and a range of physical and chemical indicators of wastewater quality. Results: A small proportion of the wastewater samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (8% of the total), consistent with theoretical predictions of detection frequency (4%-15% of the total) based on the national COVID-19 Infection Survey and defecation behaviour. In addition, norovirus was detected in wastewater at low frequency. No influenza A/B viruses, enterovirus or enterovirus D68 were detected throughout the study period. Conclusion: We conclude that testing of wastewater from ships that cross international maritime boundaries may provide a cost-effective and relatively unbiased method to estimate the flow of infected individuals between countries. The approach is also readily applicable for the surveillance of other disease-causing agents.
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