Wastewater-Based Epidemiology: Wastewater Surveillance for Pandemic Preparedness

基于废水的流行病学：废水监测以预防流行病

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-03891
• 负责人: Delatolla, Robert
• 金额: $ 3.13万
• 依托单位: University of Ottawa
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=749461
• 关键词: Wastewater; Based; Epidemiology; Surveillance; Pandemic

Wastewater surveillance (WWS) has been applied for several decades as an aggregated, anonymous, and non-invasive measurement of community disease. Since the onset of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19), WWS of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-2 virus (SARS-CoV-2), virus responsible for COVID-19, has emerged and expanded to over 57 countries. The expansion of CoV-2 WWS has been paralleled with an accelerated advancement in our understanding of the uses and benefits of WWS; with WWS demonstrating the potential to identify early detection of outbreaks, resurgences and next waves of disease in both small and large populations. The G7 Pandemic Preparedness Partnership recently highlighted the need for "a responsive diagnostics sector [.] producing accurate and rapid diagnostic tests at scale to detect new cases early". As such, WWS is positioned as a promising technology for not only pandemic preparedness in Canada but also for other countries. To translate the promise of WWS into an applied responsive diagnostic tool for pandemic preparedness, it is critical to continue to develop our understanding and interpretation of WWS measurements. In particular, the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Public Health Agency of Canada, academic researchers and others have identified the need to further understand and minimize variability and uncertainty associated with WWS measurements. The proposed research program aims to advance our understanding of the fate and transport of disease gene targets in sewers and to develop data normalization strategies to improve the accuracy and reliability of WWS for disease estimation. The scientific approach of the proposed research program is to perform controlled, laboratory-scale experiments to isolate the persistence or degradation associated with CoV-2 RNA during sewer transport and sewer flushing events, including heavy rainfall and snow melt events. The laboratory-scale experiments will be complimented by specific full-scale sewer system testing to translate the new knowledge attained at laboratory-scale to full-scale systems. Successively, the research program will apply normalization strategies to determine the potential of these strategies to minimize the variability induced by sewer transport and flushing events and to ultimately improve the precision and accuracy in the reporting and interpretation of CoV-2 WWS measurements. The research program will address CoV-2 gene target measurements with the findings being transferrable to important disease targets of future pandemics. The proposed research program will evolve the current perspective of wastewater from a source of waste to a proxy of community health and will advance the development of a rapid diagnostic technology for public health protection and pandemic preparedness in Canada and internationally.

废水监测（WWS）已被应用了几十年，作为一个聚集的，匿名的，和非侵入性的测量社区疾病。自2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）爆发以来，导致COVID-19的病毒严重急性呼吸道综合征2型病毒（SARS-CoV-2）的WWS已经出现并扩展到超过57个国家。随着我们对WWS的用途和益处的理解的加速推进，CoV-2 WWS的扩展已经得到了证实; WWS展示了在小型和大型人群中早期发现疾病爆发，复发和下一波疾病的潜力。七国集团大流行防范伙伴关系最近强调了“一个反应灵敏的诊断部门"的必要性。大规模生产准确和快速的诊断测试，以早期发现新病例”。因此，WWS被定位为一种有前途的技术，不仅适用于加拿大的大流行防范，也适用于其他国家。为了将WWS的承诺转化为流行病准备的实用响应诊断工具，继续发展我们对WWS测量的理解和解释至关重要。特别是，世界卫生组织，美国疾病控制和预防中心，加拿大公共卫生署，学术研究人员和其他人已经确定需要进一步了解和尽量减少与WWS测量相关的可变性和不确定性。拟议的研究计划旨在促进我们对下水道中疾病基因靶标的命运和运输的理解，并制定数据规范化策略，以提高WWS用于疾病估计的准确性和可靠性。 拟议的研究计划的科学方法是进行受控的实验室规模的实验，以分离在下水道运输和下水道冲洗事件（包括暴雨和融雪事件）期间与CoV-2 RNA相关的持久性或降解。实验室规模的实验将通过具体的全尺寸下水道系统测试来补充，以将实验室规模获得的新知识转化为全尺寸系统。随后，该研究计划将应用标准化策略来确定这些策略的潜力，以最大限度地减少下水道运输和冲洗事件引起的变异性，并最终提高CoV-2 WWS测量结果报告和解释的精度和准确性。该研究计划将解决CoV-2基因靶点测量问题，研究结果可转移到未来大流行的重要疾病靶点。拟议的研究计划将从废物来源的角度发展目前的废水社区健康的代理，并将推动快速诊断技术的发展，为加拿大和国际上的公共卫生保护和大流行病的准备。