Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater Northeast of Mexico City: Strategy for Monitoring and Prevalence of COVID-19

José Roberto González-Reyes, María de la Luz Hernández-Flores, Jesús Eduardo Paredes-Zarco, Alejandro Téllez-Jurado, Omar Fayad-Meneses and Lamán Carranza-Ramírez
Additional contact information
José Roberto González-Reyes: Investigación Aplicada para el Bienestar Social y Ambiental Asociación Civil (INABISA A.C.), Pachuca 42088, Mexico
María de la Luz Hernández-Flores: Consejo Ejecutivo del Complejo Científico y Tecnológico Sincrotrón, San Agustín Tlaxiaca 42163, Mexico
Jesús Eduardo Paredes-Zarco: Investigación Aplicada para el Bienestar Social y Ambiental Asociación Civil (INABISA A.C.), Pachuca 42088, Mexico
Alejandro Téllez-Jurado: Laboratorio de Agrobiotecnología, Universidad Politécnica de Pachuca, Carretera Pachuca-Cd. Sahagún km 20, Zempoala 43830, Mexico
Omar Fayad-Meneses: Consejo Ejecutivo del Complejo Científico y Tecnológico Sincrotrón, San Agustín Tlaxiaca 42163, Mexico
Lamán Carranza-Ramírez: Consejo Ejecutivo del Complejo Científico y Tecnológico Sincrotrón, San Agustín Tlaxiaca 42163, Mexico

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-14

Abstract: A month-long wastewater sampling project was conducted along the northeast periphery of Mexico City, specifically in the state of Hidalgo, to assess the presence of SARS-CoV-2. To determine the prevalence of infection and obtain a range of COVID-19 cases in the main metropolitan zones. Viral RNA residues (0–197,655 copies/L) were measured in wastewater from the five central municipalities in the state. By recording the number of RNA viral copies per liter, micro-basins delimitation, demographic and physiological data, an interval of infected people and virus prevalence was estimated using a Monte Carlo model (with 90% confidence) in the micro-basin of five municipalities with metropolitan influence or industrial activity. Our procedure determined that the percentage of the infected population ranges from 1.4% to 41.7%, while the official data reports 0.1–0.3%. This model is proposed as a helpful method of regional epidemiological monitoring through the analysis of viral prevalence.

Keywords: environmental policy; wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE); wastewater; epidemiological monitoring; prevalence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8547/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8547/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8547-:d:613571

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().