Article
Wastewater-based epidemiology for preventing outbreaks and epidemics in Latin America – Lessons from the past and a look to the future
Registro en:
PRADO, Tatiana et al. Wastewater-based epidemiology for preventing outbreaks and epidemics in Latin America – Lessons from the past and a look to the future. Science of the Total Environment, 865 (2023) 161210, p. 1 - 14, 2023.
0048-9697
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.16210
Autor
Prado, Tatiana
Rey-Benito, Gloria
Miagostovich, Marize Pereira
Sato, Maria Inês Zanoli
Rajal, Veronica Beatriz
Mota Filho, Cesar Rossas
Pereira, Alyne Duarte
Barbosa, Mikaela Renata Funada
Mannarino, Camille Ferreira
Silva, Agnes Soares da
Resumen
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an approachwith the potential to complement clinical surveillance systems.
Using WBE, it is possible to carry out an early warning of a possible outbreak, monitor spatial and temporal trends of
infectious diseases, produce real-time results and generate representative epidemiological information in a territory,
especially in areas of social vulnerability. Despite the historical uses of this approach, particularly in the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative, and for other pathogens, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred an exponential
increase in environmental surveillance programs for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater,withmany experiences and developments
in the field of public health using data for decisionmaking and prioritizing actions to control the pandemic. In
Latin America, WBE was applied in heterogeneous contexts and with emphasis on populations that present many
socio-environmental inequalities, a condition shared by all Latin American countries. This manuscript addresses the
concepts and applications ofWBE in public health actions, as well as different experiences in Latin American countries.