Correlation between Viral Wastewater Concentration and Respiratory Tests, Oregon, USA

Area of Science:

• Environmental microbiology
• Public health surveillance
• Virology

Background:

• Wastewater surveillance offers a non-invasive method for monitoring infectious disease trends.
• Early detection of respiratory viruses is crucial for public health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the correlation between wastewater virus concentrations and clinical testing data for key respiratory pathogens.
• To validate wastewater surveillance as an indicator for SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and RSV activity.

Main Methods:

• Collected wastewater samples in Oregon, USA.
• Analyzed wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and RSV.
• Correlated wastewater concentrations with weekly percent positivity from patient testing.

Main Results:

• Strong positive correlations were observed for SARS-CoV-2 (ρ=0.84, p<0.001).
• Significant positive correlations were found for influenza (ρ=0.73, p<0.001) and RSV (ρ=0.69, p<0.001).

Conclusions:

• Wastewater surveillance is a reliable predictor of community-level respiratory virus circulation.
• This method can augment traditional public health surveillance for timely outbreak detection.