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Assessment of a mass balance equation for estimating community-level prevalence of COVID-19 using wastewater-based epidemiology in a mid-sized city.


ABSTRACT: Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as a valuable epidemiologic tool to detect the presence of pathogens and track disease trends within a community. WBE overcomes some limitations of traditional clinical disease surveillance as it uses pooled samples from the entire community, irrespective of health-seeking behaviors and symptomatic status of infected individuals. WBE has the potential to estimate the number of infections within a community by using a mass balance equation, however, it has yet to be assessed for accuracy. We hypothesized that the mass balance equation-based approach using measured SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations can generate accurate prevalence estimates of COVID-19 within a community. This study encompassed wastewater sampling over a 53-week period during the COVID-19 pandemic in Gainesville, Florida, to assess the ability of the mass balance equation to generate accurate COVID-19 prevalence estimates. The SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentration showed a significant linear association (Parameter estimate = 39.43, P value < 0.0001) with clinically reported COVID-19 cases. Overall, the mass balance equation produced accurate COVID-19 prevalence estimates with a median absolute error of 1.28%, as compared to the clinical reference group. Therefore, the mass balance equation applied to WBE is an effective tool for generating accurate community-level prevalence estimates of COVID-19 to improve community surveillance.

SUBMITTER: Rainey AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9645338 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assessment of a mass balance equation for estimating community-level prevalence of COVID-19 using wastewater-based epidemiology in a mid-sized city.

Rainey Andrew L AL   Loeb Julia C JC   Robinson Sarah E SE   Davis Paul P   Liang Song S   Lednicky John A JA   Coker Eric S ES   Sabo-Attwood Tara T   Bisesi Joseph H JH   Maurelli Anthony T AT  

Scientific reports 20221109 1


Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as a valuable epidemiologic tool to detect the presence of pathogens and track disease trends within a community. WBE overcomes some limitations of traditional clinical disease surveillance as it uses pooled samples from the entire community, irrespective of health-seeking behaviors and symptomatic status of infected individuals. WBE has the potential to estimate the number of infections within a community by using a mass balance equation, however,  ...[more]

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