Occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in excreta, sewage, and environment: epidemiological significance and potential risks

ABSTRACT

The detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in patients’ excreta raises the issue of its occurrence and fate in sewage. This review has focused on the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 in human excreta, wastewater, sewage sludge, and river waters. It explored the potential use of the wastewater-based epidemiology approach to report on the situation of current and eventual future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. The main concern of the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in the environment is the public health risks at sites of sewage products disposal and reuse, especially in low-income countries with inadequate sanitation, where direct discharge and reuse of raw sewage are common practices. The review also addressed the role sewage-irrigated agriculture can have in SARS-CoV-2 spread in the environmental compartments reached through sewage products application. An overview was made on the interest of sewage management, water safety, and hygienic practices for controlling the environmental dissemination of SARS-CoV-2.

KEYWORDS:

• Sarscov-2
• sewage-irrigation
• environment
• health risks
• wastewater-based epidemiology

Conflicts of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest in the study.

Disclosure statement

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare that they have not received any fund for the present paper. The paper is the sole work of the authors and is not a part/product of any project.