Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era
SARS-CoV-2 wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) offers a tool for cost-effective oversight of a population's infections. In the past two years, WBS has proven to be crucial for managing the pandemic across different geographical regions. However, the changing context of the pandemic due to high...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/172170 |
| _version_ | 1826128169211527168 |
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| author | Armas, Federica Chandra, Franciscus Lee, Wei Lin Gu, Xiaoqiong Chen, Hongjie Xiao, Amy Leifels, Mats Wuertz, Stefan Alm, Eric J. Thompson, Janelle |
| author2 | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Armas, Federica Chandra, Franciscus Lee, Wei Lin Gu, Xiaoqiong Chen, Hongjie Xiao, Amy Leifels, Mats Wuertz, Stefan Alm, Eric J. Thompson, Janelle |
| author_sort | Armas, Federica |
| collection | NTU |
| description | SARS-CoV-2 wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) offers a tool for cost-effective oversight of a population's infections. In the past two years, WBS has proven to be crucial for managing the pandemic across different geographical regions. However, the changing context of the pandemic due to high levels of COVID-19 vaccination warrants a closer examination of its implication towards SARS-CoV-2 WBS. Two main questions were raised: 1) Does vaccination cause shedding of viral signatures without infection? 2) Does vaccination affect the relationship between wastewater and clinical data? To answer, we review historical reports of shedding from viral vaccines in use prior to the COVID-19 pandemic including for polio, rotavirus, influenza and measles infection and provide a perspective on the implications of different COVID-19 vaccination strategies with regard to the potential shedding of viral signatures into the sewershed. Additionally, we reviewed studies that looked into the relationship between wastewater and clinical data and how vaccination campaigns could have affected the relationship. Finally, analyzing wastewater and clinical data from the Netherlands, we observed changes in the relationship concomitant with increasing vaccination coverage and switches in dominant variants of concern. First, that no vaccine-derived shedding is expected from the current commercial pipeline of COVID-19 vaccines that may confound interpretation of WBS data. Secondly, that breakthrough infections from vaccinated individuals contribute significantly to wastewater signals and must be interpreted in light of the changing dynamics of shedding from new variants of concern. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T07:20:32Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/172170 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T07:20:32Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1721702023-12-01T15:33:19Z Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era Armas, Federica Chandra, Franciscus Lee, Wei Lin Gu, Xiaoqiong Chen, Hongjie Xiao, Amy Leifels, Mats Wuertz, Stefan Alm, Eric J. Thompson, Janelle School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Asian School of the Environment Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering (SCELSE) Engineering::Environmental engineering Wastewater Vaccine Shedding SARS-CoV-2 wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) offers a tool for cost-effective oversight of a population's infections. In the past two years, WBS has proven to be crucial for managing the pandemic across different geographical regions. However, the changing context of the pandemic due to high levels of COVID-19 vaccination warrants a closer examination of its implication towards SARS-CoV-2 WBS. Two main questions were raised: 1) Does vaccination cause shedding of viral signatures without infection? 2) Does vaccination affect the relationship between wastewater and clinical data? To answer, we review historical reports of shedding from viral vaccines in use prior to the COVID-19 pandemic including for polio, rotavirus, influenza and measles infection and provide a perspective on the implications of different COVID-19 vaccination strategies with regard to the potential shedding of viral signatures into the sewershed. Additionally, we reviewed studies that looked into the relationship between wastewater and clinical data and how vaccination campaigns could have affected the relationship. Finally, analyzing wastewater and clinical data from the Netherlands, we observed changes in the relationship concomitant with increasing vaccination coverage and switches in dominant variants of concern. First, that no vaccine-derived shedding is expected from the current commercial pipeline of COVID-19 vaccines that may confound interpretation of WBS data. Secondly, that breakthrough infections from vaccinated individuals contribute significantly to wastewater signals and must be interpreted in light of the changing dynamics of shedding from new variants of concern. Ministry of Education (MOE) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore, under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) program funding to the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Antimicrobial Resistance Interdisciplinary Research Group (AMR IRG) and the Intra-CREATE Thematic Grant (Cities) grant [NRF2019- THE001-0003a] to JT and EJA and funding from the Singapore Ministry of Education and National Research Foundation through an RCE award to Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) to JT. 2023-11-28T04:15:36Z 2023-11-28T04:15:36Z 2023 Journal Article Armas, F., Chandra, F., Lee, W. L., Gu, X., Chen, H., Xiao, A., Leifels, M., Wuertz, S., Alm, E. J. & Thompson, J. (2023). Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era. Environment International, 171, 107718-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107718 0160-4120 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/172170 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107718 36584425 2-s2.0-85145272739 171 107718 en NRF2019-THE001-0003a Environment International © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Environmental engineering Wastewater Vaccine Shedding Armas, Federica Chandra, Franciscus Lee, Wei Lin Gu, Xiaoqiong Chen, Hongjie Xiao, Amy Leifels, Mats Wuertz, Stefan Alm, Eric J. Thompson, Janelle Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era |
| title | Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era |
| title_full | Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era |
| title_fullStr | Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era |
| title_short | Contextualizing wastewater-based surveillance in the COVID-19 vaccination era |
| title_sort | contextualizing wastewater based surveillance in the covid 19 vaccination era |
| topic | Engineering::Environmental engineering Wastewater Vaccine Shedding |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/172170 |
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