Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is having a devastating effect on human lives. Recent reports have shown that majority of the individuals recovered from COVID-19 have serious health complications, which is going to be a huge economic burden globally. Given the wide-spread transmission of SARS-CoV-2 it is almost impossible to test every individual in densely populated countries. Recent reports have shown that sewage-based surveillance can be used as holistic approach to understand the spread of the pandemic within a population or area. Here we have estimated the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the city of Hyderabad, India, which is a home for nearly 10 million people. The sewage samples were collected from all the major sewage treatment plants (STPs) and were processed for detecting the viral genome using the standard Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method. Interestingly, inlet samples of STPs were positive for SARS-CoV-2, while the outlets were negative, which indicates that the standard sewage treatment methods are efficient in eliminating the SARS-CoV-2 viral particles. Based on the detected viral gene copies per litre and viral particle shedding per individual, the total number of individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2 was estimated. Through this study we suggest that sewage-based surveillance is an effective approach to study the infection dynamics, which helps in efficient management of the SARS-CoV-2 spread.
Highlights
The surveillance of disease prevalence during pandemic like Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is a crucial task considering the spreading rate and high population in different parts of the world
3.1 Optimization of Disinfection Concentration Sodium hypochlorite was used to disinfect the wastewater collected from the sewage treatment plants (STPs)
In order to find the least concentration of sodium hypochlorite that result in identifying maximum number of RNA copies using Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), we performed an optimisation step
Summary
The surveillance of disease prevalence during pandemic like Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is a crucial task considering the spreading rate and high population in different parts of the world. The massive testing of the population to contain the spread of the virus is a challenge to any nation in the present scenario. Emerging studies have shown the after effects of COVID-19, which is going to be huge economic burden globally and pressing the importance of managing the infected individuals and to keep the spread to minimum (McKibbin et al, 2020). Considering the present testing capacity and cost incurred, it is impractical to test all the individuals. There is a need for alternative strategies to assess the disease spread and efficiently allocate resources for disease management
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