2023 September Monthly Update

COVID-19 Virus Viability in Wastewater. From a WEF blue-ribbon panel:  "Although the virus’ RNA has been detected in untreated wastewater, no reports thus far have shown viable or infectious forms of the virus in wastewater. The virus that causes COVID-19 requires living host cells to reproduce. Given the characteristics of the virus that cause COVID-19, the panelists write, it is unlikely that this virus would be any more infectious than other types of viruses typical to the wastewater environment. The panel notes, however, that although the infectious form of the virus that causes COVID-19 has not yet been detected in wastewater, wastewater sludge, or biosolids, its presence cannot be ruled out without further research." See the post here: https://www.wef.org/publications/news/wef-news/blue-ribbon-panel-coronavirus-risks-low-for-wastewater-workers/

The CDC NWSS website also states that "While SARS-CoV-2 can be shed in the feces of individuals with COVID-19, there is no information to date that anyone has become sick with COVID-19 because of direct exposure to treated or untreated wastewater." This statement can be found here: CDC NWSS Wastewater Surveillance (scroll down to the smaller blue box).

Workshop.  WEF has released a summary of what they learned through their ten Wastewater Surveillance Utility Needs Workshops around the country.  View their analysis on the challenges utilities face in participating in wastewater surveillance here: WEF Wastewater Surveillance Utility Needs Workshop Summary. The most common barrier identified was the motivation for a utility to participate (see the figure below).

 

Article. One year ago, we published an article that illustrated the correlation between COVID-19 variants found in Oregon's wastewater and the variants found in clinical specimens during 2021 and 2022. View the article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9423899/. Wastewater data mirrored the emergence and fading of variants from clinical specimens (see the figure below). "Because wastewater surveillance does not rely on healthcare access, testing acceptance, and molecular testing availability, it likely provides more robust and less biased estimates than sequencing of clinical specimens. Thus, wastewater genomic surveillance could prove valuable in surveillance for many other pathogens of public health concern." Oregon wastewater utilities were acknowledged with the following statement: "We thank all the Oregon wastewater utilities that participated in the statewide wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance program..." 

 

Meetings.  Consider registering for the free one-day Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit, organized by the Water Environment Federation in cooperation with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention taking place on Sunday, October 1. Join water and public health professionals, practitioners, and policymakers to share ideas and lessons learned related to the implementation of wastewater surveillance programs virtually or in person in Chicago, IL. (http://www.wef.org/wdss)

2023 August Monthly Update

Website. We have developed a website for the OSU Wastewater Surveillance Laboratory at OSU.You can find Utility information on the site here: https://research.engr.oregonstate.edu/owws/utility-participants. You will find the filtering protocol, contact information, and a link to upload average daily flow on this page.

Workshop. About 9 Oregon utilities participated in the WEF/CDC sponsored Wastewater Surveillance Utility Needs Workshop in Seattle in July. We had very good discussions with folks from Washington, Alaska and Idaho regarding hurdles and solutions for utility participation.

Flows. We are trying to get all utilities to include the average daily flow with their sample, or within days of mailing their sample. If you already do this - Thank you! If you don’t include the flow with the sample, you can also use the website link, email wastewater@oregonstate.edu, or text to Christine Kelly at 541-829-1973.

 Context: The CDC developed the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS, https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/index.html) to build the nation’s capacity to track the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in September of 2020, and is learning more about tracking other disease threats.  Oregon participates in the NWSS. The map below shows the counties in the US (in blue) that report wastewater surveillance data to the CDC.

 

From the CDS NWSS: 

Wastewater surveillance data are primarily used in three ways by state and local communities: 

1.    Monitoring for presence of infection within a community. 

2.    Tracking trends in infection within a community. 

3.    Screening for infections at a targeted site (e.g., building or facility) to trigger additional individual-based testing and mitigation measures. 

  

Wastewater surveillance data can be used to inform clinical testing and community mitigation strategies, such as: 

·         Increased testing of individuals in the affected community 

·         Increased public health communication about how individuals can protect themselves and outreach in the affected community 

·         Monitoring and impact evaluation of community mitigation strategies