Journal Article
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Communities Through Wastewater Surveillance—a Potential Approach for Estimation of Disease Burden
Prosun Bhattacharya; Manish Kumar; Md. Tahmidul Islam; Rehnuma Haque; Sudip Chakraborty; Arslan Ahmad; Nabeel Khan Niazi; Zeynep Cetecioglu; David Nilsson; Julian Ijumulana; Tom van der Voorn; Md. Jakariya; Maqsud Hossain; Firoz Ahmed; Mahbubur Rahman; Nargis Akter; Dara Johnston; Kazi Matin Ahmed
Current Pollution Reports · Vol. 7, Issue 2 · pp. 160-166 · 2021
Abstract
The episodic outbreak of COVID-19 due to SARS-CoV-2 is severely affecting the economy, and the global count of infected patients is increasing. The actual number of patients had been underestimated due to limited facilities for testing as well as asymptomatic nature of the expression of COVID-19 on individual basis. Tragically, for emerging economies with high population density, the situation has been more complex due to insufficient testing facilities for diagnosis of the disease. However, the recent reports about persistent shedding of viral RNA of SARS-CoV-2 in the human feces have created a possibility to track the prevalence and trends of the disease in communities, known as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). In this article, we highlight the current limitations and future prospects for WBE to manage pandemics.