Prevalence of COVID19 in populations through wastewater surveillance

我们正处于由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒-2(SARS-CoV-2)引起的全球紧急情况中。由于检测有限，加上不同司法管辖区的检测标准不同，准确跟踪加拿大各地区和全球感染柯萨奇病毒19的人口比例一直很困难。一种补充的跟踪方法分析了被感染者排放到废水中的病毒。SARS-CoV-2基因组被逆转录成DNA后，可以通过定量聚合酶链式反应(QPCR)在样本中检测到SARS-CoV-2。因此，废水样本中存在的病毒载量可以与废水系统所服务地区的感染程度有关。 我们将检测从卑诗省不同地点采集的废水样本中存在的SARS-CoV-2病毒RNA的水平和序列。第一个重点是温哥华岛的地点，以迭代方案并建立可扩展的程序和数据工具，以产生对公共卫生机构和科学研究有用的时间序列数据集。第二阶段将扩展到不列颠哥伦比亚省的其他实验室和废水处理地点；将开发额外的数据管理工具，以便从扩大的网络进行统一报告。第三阶段将把病毒数据与其他数据源整合在一个软件平台中，该平台将向公共卫生机构提供持续更新的时间序列数据。关键的科学问题是，在同一地区的人群中，废水病毒水平与临床病例之间是否存在显著的相关性。除了通过有针对性的检测或卫生系统的其他反应来协助公共卫生机构应对当前的疫情外，该网络还将提供数据，以调查其他科学未知因素--人口中存在的病毒株、季节变化、水处理技术对污水中病毒载量的影响。

We are in a global emergency caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Accurately tracking the percentage of the population suffering from COVID19 in regions of Canada and globally has been difficult due to limited testing coupled with different testing criteria in different jurisdictions. A complementary approach to tracking analyzes the virus shed to wastewater by infected people. SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in samples using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) after its genome is reverse transcribed into DNA. The viral load present in wastewater samples can then be related to the extent of infection in the region served by the wastewater system. We will detect the levels and sequence SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA present in wastewater samples taken from different locations in BC. The first focus is Vancouver Island locations to iterate protocols and build scalable procedures and data tools to produce time-series datasets useful to public health agencies and scientific inquiry. The second phase will expand to other labs and wastewater locations in BC; additional data management tools will be developed for uniform reporting from the expanded network. A third phase will integrate the virus data with other data sources in a software platform that will provide continually updated time-series data to public health agencies. The key scientific question is whether there exists significant correlation between wastewater virus levels and clinical cases in the same regional populations. In addition to assisting public health agencies in responding to the current outbreak through targeted testing or other health system responses, the network will provide data to investigate other scientific unknowns - viral strains present in the population, seasonal variations, effects of water treatment technologies on viral load in effluent.