COVIDBENSepidemiología de COVID-19 basada en aguas residuales de A Coruña

  1. Trigo Tasende, Noelia
Supervised by:
  1. Margarita Poza Domínguez Director
  2. Ricardo Cao Abad Director
  3. Susana Ladra González Director

Defence university: Universidade da Coruña

Fecha de defensa: 27 June 2024

Committee:
  1. Salvador Naya Chair
  2. Astrid Pérez Gómez Secretary
  3. Sabela Balboa Méndez Committee member

Type: Thesis

DIALNET lock_openRUC editor

Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is essential for monitoring pathogens responsible for infectious diseases. This Doctoral Thesis presents in detail the COVIDBENS project, a multidisciplinary program that integrates the areas of microbiology, statistics and bioinformatics, implemented in the metropolitan area of A Coruña with the aim of monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from the wastewater treatment plant of Bens, which serves to the municipalities of A Coruña, Arteixo, Cambre, Culleredo and Oleiros. COVIDBENS worked as an early warning system for SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks and its emerging variants, providing crucial information to understand the true magnitude of the epidemic in the population and facilitating decision-making by authorities. Furthermore, the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 (RNA copies/L) at local level was monitored from the wastewater of nursing homes located in the metropolitan area of A Coruña to predict new outbreaks among residents and to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign. This work once again demonstrated that the WBE is a cost-effective strategy to prevent emerging diseases outbreaks or future pandemic threats.