SARS-CoV-2: SEWERAGE AS A TRANSMISSION ROUTE

Abstract

The results of a study of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA of urban wastewater in sewers and sewage treatment plants are presented. The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes a severe mainly respiratory disease; it is virulent, and due to its high contagiousness leads to a rapid spread of infection with a significant excess of the epidemic threshold. It has been established that the control of the path of infection through the urban sewerage system is a way of early warning of an increase in the circulation of the virus in the population, which will make it possible to prevent the epidemic more successfully, to promptly make decisions on significant health issues. At the same time, the transmission of Covid-19 through wastewater is unlikely due to the absence of direct human contact with water – both in the sewer and on the OS, and the disinfection technologies used on them, as the final stage of the treatment process before discharge into water bodies, make them safe in the environment and the water circulation system.

Subject of research. Mechanisms of transmission of the causative agent of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in order to identify transmission factors and overlap all ways of its spread.

Materials and methods. Wastewater monitoring by sampling in sewer wells and sewage treatment plants with laboratory testing for the presence of virus nucleotides. Development of mathematical apparatus and algorithmization for the computer implementation of the calculation of the structure of the sewer network, allowing to detect the source of distribution.

Results. It has been established that the coronavirus is resistant in an aggressive wastewater environment and the infection can be transmitted through the household sewerage system, however, the deterioration of the sanitary and epidemiological situation and the impact on the epidemic due to the spread of the pathogen through the pipelines of the wastewater disposal system and through treatment facilities is unlikely, there is no risk of Covid-19 disease; sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater allows you to study the genome of the virus from a variety of samples and determine the direction of mutations.

Conclusions. Wastewater monitoring in order to study the epidemiological situation is a reliable approach that allows covering a large number of the population with the help of several samples, the approach is valuable for early warning, is an economically feasible alternative to large-scale individual testing.