Feasibility assessment of an EU approach

The ability to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is a possible way to better understand its approximate overall presence in the population, if combined with the monitoring of suitable tracers such as cross-assembly phage, pepper mild mottle virus or chemicals tracers related to human activities (e.g. pharmaceuticals used in the treatment of COVID-19). This report describes a fast track collaborative effort with stakeholders from academia, the Water and Public Health Sectors. The assessment reveals insights into methodologies and entailed costs for a European Sewage Sentinel System for SARS-CoV-2. Data from two experimental assessments link national, regional and local surveillance programs. It shares the findings of accompanying knowledge brokering and transfer events organized to have a rolling exchange of information and review of advances, such coping with the speed challenge of the rapid dynamics of this pandemic. Data from wastewater testing cannot replace existing COVID-19 surveillance systems, but complement them by providing: • An efficient pooled community sample, since the virus is shed in the faeces of individuals with symptomatic or asymptomatic infection • information on changes in total COVID-19 infection in the community connected to a sewer shed • Data for communities where timely COVID-19 clinical testing is underutilized or unavailable. • An early warning for (re)-emergence in Europe and beyond. Sewage testing has been successfully used as a method for early detection of other diseases, such as polio. Indeed, with the right frequency of testing, the tool can become a leading indicator of changes in COVID-19 burden in a community. • a COVID-19 indicator that is independent of healthcare-seeking behaviours and access to clinical testing.

GAWLIK Bernd;  TAVAZZI Simona;  MARIANI Giulio;  SKEJO Helle;  SPONAR Michel;  HIGGINS Trudy;  MEDEMA Gertjan;  WINTGENS Thomas; 

2021-04-29

Publications Office of the European Union

JRC125065

978-92-76-36888-5 (online),    978-92-76-36887-8 (print),   

1831-9424 (online),    1018-5593 (print),   

EUR 30684 EN,    OP KJ-NA-30684-EN-N (online),    OP KJ-NA-30684-EN-C (print),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125065,   

10.2760/300580 (online),    10.2760/909651 (print),