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COVID-19大流行对公共卫生和经济造成了重大影响。目前，全球有超过200万例COVID-19确诊病例，其中近70万例在美国。有限的检测能力和无症状感染导致SARS-CoV2（导致COVID-19的病毒）的实际感染人数严重未知。因此，迫切需要追踪SARS-CoV2的替代方法。该RAPID项目的目标是通过监测加利福尼亚州、北卡罗来纳州、华盛顿特区和德克萨斯州四个城市的废水中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，以创建对了解当前大流行至关重要的数据收集。冠状病毒的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，以确定测试废水是否有助于预测社区中COVID-19的存在。从这项研究中获得的知识将促进对废水检测如何用于指导单个社区的医疗资源的理解，减少未来疫情期间更大社区的长期经济中断。有限的诊断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总样本进行分析，以获得社区规模的感染动态测量。在奥兰治县、罗利、华盛顿和休斯顿四个地理上不同的大都市地区进行协调努力，将解决在使用废水监测作为公共卫生监测工具方面的知识差距。将在整个感染期间从四个城市污水处理厂收集原废水和初级固体，以量化样品中的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该分析，将验证并扩大对废水监测的理解，使其成为除SARS-CoV2之外的各种人类病毒的公共卫生监测工具。该小组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。结果和方法将使用FAIR（可查找、可访问、可互操作和可重复使用）协议公开共享，以协助更大的研究人员网络研究废水中的SARS-CoV2。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.