Jobling, Kelly and Quintela-Baluja, Marcos and Hassard, Francis and Adamou, Panagiota and Blackburn, Adrian and Research Team, Term and McIntyre-Nolan, Shannon and O'Mara, Oscar and Romalde, Jesus L and Di Cesare, Mariachiara and Graham, David W (2023) Comparison of gene targets and sampling regimes for SARS-CoV-2 quantification for wastewater epidemiology in UK prisons. Journal of Water and Health, 22 (1). pp. 64-76. DOI https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2023.093
Jobling, Kelly and Quintela-Baluja, Marcos and Hassard, Francis and Adamou, Panagiota and Blackburn, Adrian and Research Team, Term and McIntyre-Nolan, Shannon and O'Mara, Oscar and Romalde, Jesus L and Di Cesare, Mariachiara and Graham, David W (2023) Comparison of gene targets and sampling regimes for SARS-CoV-2 quantification for wastewater epidemiology in UK prisons. Journal of Water and Health, 22 (1). pp. 64-76. DOI https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2023.093
Jobling, Kelly and Quintela-Baluja, Marcos and Hassard, Francis and Adamou, Panagiota and Blackburn, Adrian and Research Team, Term and McIntyre-Nolan, Shannon and O'Mara, Oscar and Romalde, Jesus L and Di Cesare, Mariachiara and Graham, David W (2023) Comparison of gene targets and sampling regimes for SARS-CoV-2 quantification for wastewater epidemiology in UK prisons. Journal of Water and Health, 22 (1). pp. 64-76. DOI https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2023.093
Abstract
Prisons are high-risk settings for infectious disease transmission, due to their enclosed and semi-enclosed environments. The proximity between prisoners and staff, and the diversity of prisons reduces the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as social distancing. Therefore, alternative health monitoring methods, such as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), are needed to track pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2. This pilot study assessed WBE to quantify SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in prison wastewater to determine its utility within a health protection system for residents. The study analysed 266 samples from six prisons in England over a 12-week period for nucleoprotein 1 (N1 gene) and envelope protein (E gene) using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Both gene assays successfully detected SARS-CoV-2 fragments in wastewater samples, with both genes significantly correlating with COVID-19 case numbers across the prisons (p < 0.01). However, in 25% of the SARS-positive samples, only one gene target was detected, suggesting that both genes be used to reduce false-negative results. No significant differences were observed between 14- and 2-h composite samples, although 2-h samples showed greater signal variance. Population normalisation did not improve correlations between the N1 and E genes and COVID-19 case data. Overall, WBE shows considerable promise for health protection in prison settings.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | COVID-19, health monitoring, prisons, RT-qPCR, SARS-CoV-2, wastewater-based epidemiology |
Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Health and Social Care, School of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jan 2024 12:51 |
Last Modified: | 29 May 2024 15:52 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/37146 |
Available files
Filename: jwh2023093.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0