TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatiotemporal Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the Sewage of Three Major Urban Areas in Peru
T2 - Generating Valuable Data Where Clinical Testing Is Extremely Limited
AU - Pardo-Figueroa, Braulio
AU - Mindreau-Ganoza, Elias
AU - Reyes-Calderon, Alonso
AU - Yufra, Sonia P.
AU - Solorzano-Ortiz, Isabel M.
AU - Donayre-Torres, Alberto J.
AU - Antonini, Claudia
AU - Renom, Jose Miguel
AU - Quispe, Antonio Marty
AU - Mota, Cesar R.
AU - Chernicharo, Carlos A.L.
AU - Carbajal, Max A.
AU - Santa-María, Mónica C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Swiss Cooperation (SECO) through the Interinstitutional Agreement between the Swiss Confederation, represented by the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI), the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation (MVCS), the Technical Agency for the Administration of Sanitation Services (OTASS), and the National Superintendence of Sanitation Services (SUNASS), regarding the “Support Program for the Strengthening of the Water and Sanitation Sector (W&S) in Peru”; executed by the Technical Assistance Fund (SECOSAN), with Contract 12-2020-SECOSAN. The author acknowledges the outstanding assistance and constant support provided by the Water and Sanitation Service Provider Companies for Lima and Callao (SEDAPAL) and Arequipa (SEDAPAR).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/11/11
Y1 - 2022/11/11
N2 - Peru has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. By January 2022, Peru had surpassed 200 000 COVID-19 deaths, constituting the highest death rate per capita worldwide. Peru has had several limitations during the pandemic: insufficient testing access, limited contact tracing, a strained medical infrastructure, and many economic hurdles. These limitations hindered the gathering of accurate information about infected individuals with spatial resolution in real time, a critical aspect of effectively controlling the pandemic. Wastewater monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 RNA offered a promising alternative for providing needed population-wide information to complement health care indicators. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility and value of implementing a decentralized SARS-CoV-2 RNA wastewater monitoring system to assess the spatiotemporal distribution of COVID-19 in three major cities in Peru: Lima, Callao, and Arequipa. Our data on viral loads showed the same trends as health indicators such as incidence and mortality. Furthermore, we were able to identify hot spots of contagion within the surveyed urban areas to guide the efforts of health authorities. Viral decay in the sewage network of the cities studied was found to be negligible (<2%). Overall, our results support wastewater monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 as a valuable and cost-effective tool for monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic in the Peruvian context.
AB - Peru has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. By January 2022, Peru had surpassed 200 000 COVID-19 deaths, constituting the highest death rate per capita worldwide. Peru has had several limitations during the pandemic: insufficient testing access, limited contact tracing, a strained medical infrastructure, and many economic hurdles. These limitations hindered the gathering of accurate information about infected individuals with spatial resolution in real time, a critical aspect of effectively controlling the pandemic. Wastewater monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 RNA offered a promising alternative for providing needed population-wide information to complement health care indicators. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility and value of implementing a decentralized SARS-CoV-2 RNA wastewater monitoring system to assess the spatiotemporal distribution of COVID-19 in three major cities in Peru: Lima, Callao, and Arequipa. Our data on viral loads showed the same trends as health indicators such as incidence and mortality. Furthermore, we were able to identify hot spots of contagion within the surveyed urban areas to guide the efforts of health authorities. Viral decay in the sewage network of the cities studied was found to be negligible (<2%). Overall, our results support wastewater monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 as a valuable and cost-effective tool for monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic in the Peruvian context.
KW - COVID-19
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - environmental surveillance
KW - epidemiological monitoring
KW - hot spots
KW - wastewater-based epidemiology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141970518&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsestwater.2c00065
DO - 10.1021/acsestwater.2c00065
M3 - Original Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141970518
SN - 2690-0637
VL - 2
SP - 2144
EP - 2157
JO - ACS ES and T Water
JF - ACS ES and T Water
IS - 11
ER -