Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40641522›Full record

ArticleEnvironmental advances2025

Clinical correlation of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater passive sampling in long-term care facilities and wastewater treatment plants.

William Strike, Alexus Rockward, Blazan Mijatovic, Ann Noble, Cullen Olsson, Soroosh Torabi, Mohammad Dehghan Banadaki, Reuben Adatorwovor, James Keck, Scott Berry

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Environmental advances, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

William StrikeDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, 522 Robotics and Manufacturing Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0108, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-0917-5064
Alexus RockwardDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, 522 Robotics and Manufacturing Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0108, United States.
Blazan MijatovicDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Kentucky, 151 Ralph G. Anderson Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0503, United States.ORCID 0009-0004-6626-5594
Ann NobleDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Kentucky, 151 Ralph G. Anderson Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0503, United States.ORCID 0009-0009-7378-6466
Cullen OlssonDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Kentucky, 151 Ralph G. Anderson Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0503, United States.
Soroosh TorabiDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Kentucky, 151 Ralph G. Anderson Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0503, United States.
Mohammad Dehghan BanadakiDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Kentucky, 151 Ralph G. Anderson Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0503, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-6448-3505
Reuben AdatorwovorDepartment of Biostatistics, University of Kentucky, 111 Washington Avenue, Lexington, KY 40536, United States.
James KeckDepartment of Family and Community Medicine, University of Kentucky, 2159 Harrodsburg Road, Lexington, KY 40504, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-7193-065X
Scott BerryDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, 522 Robotics and Manufacturing Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0108, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-7403-9264

Funding

Pilot Project ProgramP30ES026529 · NIEHS · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · PI Erin N Haynes · 2017 to 2026
$15.4M
Wastewater Assessment for Coronavirus in Kentucky: Implementing Enhanced Surveillance TechnologyU01DA053903 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · PI BERRY, SCOTT M · 2021 to 2022
$3.4M
NIDA NIH HHS U01 DA053903NIEHS NIH HHS P30 ES026529
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a promising tool for improving health outcomes through early detection and cost-effective pathogen surveillance. Long-term care facilities (LTCFs) serve and employ vulnerable populations that may particularly benefit from the use of WBE, but financial and technical costs associated with standard sampling methods limit the feasibility of WBE in the LTCF setting. In this work, we used passive sampling to simplify the wastewater analysis process and compared its performance to the standard composite sampling method. Moore swabs and automatic composite samplers were used concurrently to sample wastewater from two LTCFs, and samples were analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 concentration. Passive sampling relies on an unknown volume of wastewater flowing through a cotton material, which complicates back calculations of pathogen concentration. We chose to calculate analyte concentrations based on the squeezed eluent from the cotton swab, which is practical for temporal analysis. Across all samples, passive and composite sampling performed similarly for SARS-CoV-2 detection and mean concentration. However, we observed a sensitivity advantage at low SARS-CoV-2 concentrations (<180 gc/mL) when using passive sampling. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations obtained via passive sampling correlated with the reported clinical cases, with wastewater concentration leading reported clinical cases by an average of 4 days. Passive and composite sampling were also performed at a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to examine the effects of facility type on sampling performance. To our knowledge, this is the first work performing a comparative analysis at both facility- and community-scale locations. Passive sampling yielded significantly higher SARS-CoV-2 and fecal load biomarkers than composite sampling at WWTPs, illustrating an important difference between LTCF samples and WWTP samples.

Indexed as

Clinical correlationLong-term care facilitiesMoore swabPassive samplingSARS-CoV-2Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE)

Identifiers

PMID40641522
PMCPMC12245160

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Registered trials

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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.