Joint Article on Wastewater-based Surveillance of Infectious Diseases in São Tomé and Príncipe
Together with the Laboratório de Referência da Tuberculose in São Tomé and Príncipe and the University of Barcelona the Bernhard Nocht Institute produced an article on wastewater-based surveillance for Hepatitis A virus, Enterovirus, Poliovirus, and SARS-CoV-2 in São Tomé. The open-source paper was published on 18 October 2024 in Science of The Total Environment.
Wastewater-based surveillance is a valuable tool for monitoring pathogen transmission in communities, especially in regions where formal surveillance systems are limited. The aim of the joint study was to implement and evaluate a wastewater-based monitoring system for viral pathogens in São Tomé and Príncipe.
For this purpose, water samples were collected bi-weekly from June 2022 to July 2023 at six locations in São Tomé city. They were analysed for molecular detection of Hepatitis A Virus (HAV), Enterovirus (EV), Poliovirus (PV), SARS-CoV-2, as well as JC-Polyomavirus (JCPyV) and pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) as indicators of human contamination. Results for SARS-CoV-2 were assessed together with notifications from national COVID-19 surveillance. Further, we estimated resources needed to establish a wastewater-based approach to assess community-level transmission of viral pathogens.
Our findings provide evidence of high transmission of HAV and EV in communities in São Tomé and continuous circulation of SARS-CoV-2, even in weeks without COVID-19 case notifications. This study demonstrates that monitoring of viral pathogens in humanly impacted open water streams and sewage tanks is a valuable tool to complement clinical surveillance in resource-limited settings.
The study was published in the scientific journal Science of the Total Environment.
Wastewater-based surveillance for Hepatitis A virus, Enterovirus, Poliovirus, and SARS-CoV-2 in São Tomé and Príncipe: A pilot study, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 955, 2024, 176923.
