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Updated: Jun 16, 2025
Quantification and Whole Genome Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater and Air Samples
Published on: June 30, 2023
Sequencing-Based Detection of Measles in Wastewater: Texas, January 2025
Sara Javornik Cregeen1, Michael J Tisza1, Blake Hanson1
1Sara Javornik Cregeen, Michael J. Tisza, Marissa Cook, Anil Surathu, Matthew C. Ross, Joseph F. Petrosino, and Anthony Maresso are with The Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research and the Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. Blake Hanson, Jennifer Deegan, and Eric Boerwinkle are with the School of Public Health at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Rebecca Schneider, Kirstin Short, Kaavya Domakonda, and Loren Hopkins are with the Houston Health Department. Jingjing Wu and Lauren B. Stadler are with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University, Houston.
None:
Measles is a potentially deadly viral infection spread via respiratory droplets from infected individuals. Outbreaks occur when vaccine coverage drops below the threshold of herd, or community, immunity. Using a sequencing-based approach, we report the prospective (January 7, 2025) detection of measles in nucleic acid extracts from 2 wastewater treatment plants in Houston, Texas, with a population of more than 218 000 residents. The sequencing data from 2 samples contained 53 unique reads mapping to 11 different regions of the measles virus genome with a 99.4% match to genotype B3. Importantly, no detections were observed from 821 previous samples from the same city spanning nearly 3 years of monitoring. The findings were confirmed using droplet digital polymerase chain reaction. A concomitant investigation identified 2 unvaccinated measles-positive travelers living within the same sewershed as the wastewater detection event. This work suggests that sequencing-based wastewater analysis is valuable as a comprehensive early detection warning system that facilitates more targeted epidemiological investigation. (Am J Public Health. 2025;115(7):1115-1119. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308146).
