RAPID: Monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 in municipal wastewater and sewage to elucidate infection dynamics across major metropolitan areas of the United States

全球新冠肺炎疫情对公共卫生和经济造成重大影响。目前，全球有200多万例新冠肺炎确诊病例，其中美国有近70万例。有限的检测能力和无症状感染导致SARS-CoV2(导致新冠肺炎的病毒)感染的实际人数严重未知。因此，迫切需要追踪SARS-CoV2的替代方法。这个快速项目的目标是通过监测加州、北卡罗来纳州、华盛顿特区和德克萨斯州四个城市废水中SARS-CoV2的存在来监测公共卫生。将在这四个城市的感染高峰之前、期间和之后收集样本，创建对了解当前大流行至关重要的数据收集。冠状病毒水平将使用针对病毒特定部分的方法来确定。废水数据将与医疗保健系统的数据进行比较，以确定检测废水是否有助于预测社区中是否存在新冠肺炎。从这项研究中获得的知识将促进对如何使用废水检测来将医疗资源引导到个别社区的理解，减少在未来爆发期间对更大社区的长期经济干扰。有限的诊断性检测和无症状感染导致SARS-CoV2感染的实际程度存在很大的不确定性。对城市污水的分析相当于对所有社区成员的汇集样本进行分析，以便在社区范围内衡量感染动态。在奥兰治县、华盛顿州罗利和休斯顿特区这四个地理位置不同的主要大都市地区进行的协调努力，将解决将废水监测用作公共卫生监测工具方面的知识差距。在整个感染期内，将从四个城市污水处理厂收集未经处理的废水和初级固体，以量化样本中的SARS-CoV2、季节性流感和肠道病毒。使用相同的实验方案，并将其他病毒纳入这一分析，将验证和扩大对废水监测作为除SARS-CoV2之外的各种人类病毒的公共卫生监测工具的理解。该团队拥有公共卫生和废水处理专业知识，可以检查废水数据与临床数据之间的关系。这项研究的结果将有助于确定废水监测作为公共卫生监测工具的全部潜力，并帮助公共卫生官员为未来的疫情做好准备。结果和方法将通过公平(可发现、可访问、可互操作和可重复使用)协议在公众中共享，以帮助更大的研究人员网络研究废物中的SARS-CoV2。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The global COVID-19 pandemic has created major impacts to public health and the economy. Currently, there are over two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with nearly 700,000 cases in the United States. Limited testing capacity and asymptomatic infections have resulted in significant unknowns in the actual number of infections by SARS-CoV2 (the virus responsible for COVID-19). Therefore, alternative methods of tracking the SARS-CoV2 are urgently needed. The goal of this RAPID project monitor public health by surveilling SARS-CoV2 presence in wastewater in four cities in CA, NC, Washington DC, and TX. Samples will be gathered before, during, and after infection peaks in these four cities, creating a data collection essential to understanding the current pandemic. Coronavirus levels will be determined using methods that target specific parts of the virus. The wastewater data will be compared to data from the healthcare system to determine if testing wastewater can help predict COVID-19 presence in a community. Knowledge gained from this study will advance the understanding of how wastewater testing can be used to guide healthcare resources to individual communities, reducing long-term economic disruption of the larger community during future outbreaks.Limited diagnostic testing and asymptomatic infections result in large uncertainty in the actual extent of SARS-CoV2 infections. Analysis of municipal wastewater is equivalent to analyzing a pooled sample from all community members for a community-scale measure of infection dynamics. A coordinated effort across four major geographically diverse metropolitan areas, Orange County, Raleigh, Washington, and DC, Houston will address knowledge gaps in the use of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool. Raw wastewater and primary solids will be collected from four municipal wastewater treatment plants throughout the infection period to quantify SARS-CoV2, seasonal influenza, and an enteric virus in the samples. Using identical experimental protocols and incorporating other viruses into this analysis will validate and expand the understanding of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool for various human viruses in addition to SARS-CoV2. The team has public health and wastewater treatment expertise to examine how wastewater data relates to clinical data. The results from this study will help to characterize the full potential of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool and help prepare public health officials for future outbreaks. Results and methods will be shared in publicly available using FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) protocols to assist the larger network of researchers studying SARS-CoV2 in wastewater.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.