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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kelly JoblingORCiD, Marcos Quintela-Baluja, Panagiota Adamou, Adrian Blackburn, Professor David GrahamORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
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.
Author(s): Jobling K, Quintela-Baluja M, Hassard F, Adamou P, Blackburn A, Term Research Team, McIntyre-Nolan S, O'Mara O, Romalde JL, Di Cesare M, Graham DW
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Water and Health
Year: 2024
Volume: 22
Issue: 1
Pages: 64-76
Print publication date: 01/01/2024
Online publication date: 02/12/2023
Acceptance date: 26/11/2023
Date deposited: 19/02/2024
ISSN (print): 1477-8920
ISSN (electronic): 1996-7829
Publisher: IWA Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2023.093
DOI: 10.2166/wh.2023.093
PubMed id: 38295073
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