Logo image
Wastewater-based epidemiology—surveillance and early detection of waterborne pathogens with a focus on SARS-CoV-2, Cryptosporidium and Giardia
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Wastewater-based epidemiology—surveillance and early detection of waterborne pathogens with a focus on SARS-CoV-2, Cryptosporidium and Giardia

A. Zahedi, P. Monis, D. Deere and U. Ryan
Parasitology Research
2021
url
Link to Published Version *Subscription may be requiredView

Abstract

Waterborne diseases are a major global problem, resulting in high morbidity and mortality, and massive economic costs. The ability to rapidly and reliably detect and monitor the spread of waterborne diseases is vital for early intervention and preventing more widespread disease outbreaks. Pathogens are, however, difficult to detect in water and are not practicably detectable at acceptable concentrations that need to be achieved in treated drinking water (which are of the order one per million litre). Furthermore, current clinical-based surveillance methods have many limitations such as the invasive nature of the testing and the challenges in testing large numbers of people. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), which is based on the analysis of wastewater to monitor the emergence and spread of infectious disease at a population level, has received renewed attention in light of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The present review will focus on the application of WBE for the detection and surveillance of pathogens with a focus on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the waterborne protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia. The review highlights the benefits and challenges of WBE and the future of this tool for community-wide infectious disease surveillance.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

Source: InCites

Metrics

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Citation topics
1 Clinical & Life Sciences
1.246 Diarrheal Diseases
1.246.985 Cryptosporidium
Web Of Science research areas
Parasitology
ESI research areas
Microbiology
Logo image