SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Sewage in Santiago, Chile - Preliminary results

Abstract

Abstract The detection of viruses in sewage is a method of environmental surveillance, which allows evaluating the circulation of different viruses in a community. This study presents the first results of sewage surveillance to detect the circulation of SARS- CoV-2 virus in Santiago, Chile. Using ultracentrifugation associated with RT-qPCR, we detected SARS-CoV-2 in untreated and treated wastewater samples obtained two treatment plants, which together process around 85% of the wastewater from the city. This is the first report of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage in Chile and indicates that wastewater surveillance could be a sensitive tool useful as a predictive marker of the circulation of the virus in a population and therefore, be used as an early warning tool.

Publication
medrxiv
Sergio Guajardo-Leiva
Sergio Guajardo-Leiva
Scientific Collaborator
Beatriz Díez Moreno
Beatriz Díez Moreno
Associate Professor.
P. Universidad Católica de Chile.
School of Biological Sciences,
Department of Molecular
Genetics and Microbiology,
Santiago, Chile.
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