SARS-CoV-2 in municipal wastewater treatment plant, collection network, and hospital wastewater.

Chiman Karami,Hamed Zandian,Abdollah Dargahi,Mehdi Vosoughi,Vahid Asghariazar,Ahamad Mokhtari,Farhad Jeddi,Ali Normohammadi,Morteza Alighadri,Anoshirvan Sedigh

doi:10.1007/s11356-021-15374-4

Abstract

The current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to creating a public health emergency conditions since 2019. COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2, is spread via human-to-human transmission by direct contact or droplets. Through conducting this study, we were looking for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater produced in Iran country (Ardabil, Nir, Khalkhal, and Kowsar) (wastewater collection network, wastewater treatment plant, and hospital wastewater). In this research, samples (n=76) were collected from influent and effluent of municipal and hospital wastewater treatment plants, and some samples were also collected from Ardabil municipal wastewater manholes. The sampling duration included the white (lower risk of COVID-19) and red (high risk of COVID-19) conditions. Samples were stored at −20 °C for further diagnostic tests. The specific primer and probe real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) targeting ORF1ab and N genes (nucleoprotein gene) were applied to detect viral genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the wastewater samples. Out of 76 samples, a total of 15 samples (19.73%) collected from wastewater in Ardabil province (Ardabil, Nir, Khalkhal, and Kowsar), were positive in terms of SARS-CoV-2. Wastewater epidemiology can facilitate detection of the incidence of pathogens through metropolises, measurement of population prevalence without direct testing, and provision of information to the public health system about the efficiency of intervening efforts. Graphical abstract

Highlights

Coronaviruses are single-stranded positive-sense ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses, which are a member of the family Coronaviridae and the order of Nidovirales and are widely distributed in human and mammalian species (Kalan et al 2020a; Nghiem et al 2020; Sarailoo et al 2021)
When the area was a white condition for coronavirus, the results of all the samples examined from different parts of the wastewater treatment plant were negative
Two of the studied samples in the hospital wastewater were positive for the presence of coronavirus

Summary

Introduction

Coronaviruses are single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses, which are a member of the family Coronaviridae and the order of Nidovirales and are widely distributed in human and mammalian species (Kalan et al 2020a; Nghiem et al 2020; Sarailoo et al 2021). Despite the mildness of most coronavirus infections, outbreaks of both beta-coronaviruses have been associated with acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) (Drosten et al 2003; Karami et al 2021;Ksiazek et al 2003; Kuiken et al 2003) and Middle East acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Dargahi et al 2021b; de Groot et al 2013; Zaki et al 2012) These two diseases have led to the death of a large number of people (>10,000) in the last two decades (Zandian et al 2021). Clinical symptoms of patients with COVID-19 include cough, fever, sore throat, diarrhea, fatigue, and shortness of breath (Chen et al 2020; Michael-Kordatou et al 2020; Vosoughi et al 2021)

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Conclusion