Wastewater-based epidemiology in coping with COVID-19 in Brazil: implications for Primary Health Care actions as an alternative for community monitoring and diagnosis (original) (raw)

The wastewater-based epidemiology could subsidize regional actions to contain the SARS-CoV-2 in Primary Health Care (PHC), allowing anticipating the mobilization of services in areas of potential risk. With the information from the sewers, PHC services could organize interventions considering local specificities, in order to enhance their attributes. Sewage Epidemiology would allow being able to monitor spatial and temporal trends, produce results in near-real time (through biosensors), generate information on a population scale, and determine the status of COVID-19 within and among communities. In addition, it would require less public spending compared to clinical testing. Even with the limitations on the optimal coverage of sanitation services in all cities, Sewage emerges as another point to be considered at this pandemic time, presenting itself as a tool that can provide a collective diagnosis in the communities, adding to the strengthening of health, epidemiological and environmental surveillance systems in the country.