25 COVID-19 RESPONSE
26
MONITORING COVID-19 IN WASTEWATER
While public health responses to the pandemic have focused on preventing person-to-person transmission, initial studies suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could also be spread through wastewater. It has recently been shown that the virus can be found in human feces for up to 33 days after a patient has tested negative for the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19. These findings have two broad implications. First, health officials may need to consider the increased risk of infection that exposure to untreated wastewater poses to communities, particularly vulnerable populations without adequate sewage systems. Second, the detectable presence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater could potentially offer public health officials an alternative method to monitor the prevalence of infections among the population, and may serve as an early-warning system for an outbreak. Building on international case studies, KAUST Professor Peiying Hong is working with government partners to test for and monitor SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater in local communities. Monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater has already been demonstrated in the Netherlands, the UK, the UAE, Australia, Switzerland and the US. In Queensland, Australia, for example, researchers used
viral RNA samples from a wastewater plant to estimate the number of infected individuals in the surrounding communities. Meanwhile, researchers in Switzerland found viral RNA samples in wastewater in cities that had yet to record significant numbers of infections, indicating that wastewater-based epidemiology could be a useful tool for predicting where COVID-19 hotspots might emerge. With data from the World Health Organization suggesting that approximately 80% of COVID-19 infections are mild or asymptomatic, there is a pressing need to detect and monitor asymptomatic individuals who may be unknowingly transmitting the virus to others during and after an outbreak has subsided. Professor Hong and other researchers at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center aim to detect SARS-CoV-2-infected community members who have previously gone undetected under the current quarantine and swab-testing system. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Professor Hong’s team has started sampling wastewater collected from KAUST’s campus and in Jeddah. Pending the success of this pilot program, monitoring could be expanded at a national level.
WE CAN ESTABLISH THE BASELINE ABUNDANCE OF THE VIRUS IN WASTEWATER THROUGH CONTINUOUS PEIYING HONG Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and Faculty Member at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center
KAUST-Impact-190620.indd 26
MONITORING, AND ANY DEVIATIONS FROM THIS BASELINE COULD INDICATE FUTURE PANDEMICS.
26.06.2020 11:36