- Title
- A longitudinal study on the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 genome in wastewaters from typical urban and peri - urban communities in the Buffalo City Municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Creator
- Ngqwala, Balisa
- Subject
- COVID-19 (Disease)
- Subject
- SARS-CoV-2 disease
- Subject
- SARS coronavirus 2 disease
- Date Issued
- 2024
- Date
- 2024
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29888
- Identifier
- vital:79184
- Description
- The global health system and economy has been convulsed by the origin of Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 SARS-CoV-2 infections which causes Coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 infections has become a recent global health concern, with drastic increase of illnesses and mortality cases. COVID- 19 originated in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in the People’s Republic of China, nonetheless, the diseases had spread to over 229 countries to date. COVID-19 clinical spectrum varies from mild fulminant pneumonia with acute respiratory distress to asymptomatic or mild respiratory infection or multi-organ failure resulting in death. Over 691 million cases with approximately 6.9 million fatalities have been recorded due to COVID-19 globally. The main route of transmission of this disease is reported to be respiratory droplets from an infected individual. However, previous studies demonstrate the presence of the virus in faces and urine as SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragments have been detected in wastewater and river waters around the world. The focal aim of this study was to profile and compare the incidence of SARS-COV-2 genomes in wastewater samples obtained from wastewater treatment facilities located in typical urban and peri-urban communities within the Buffalo City Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Raw wastewater (influent) samples were collected by the grab sampling technique on a weekly basis for a period of 12 months sampling regime. Ribonucleic Acids were extracted from the collected wastewater WW samples, using the commercial QIAGEN Powersoil Total RNA Extraction kit, following the manufacturer’s guideline. The extracted RNA samples were further profiled for the presence and quantity of SARS-COV-2 genomes from the collected wastewate samples by Quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction qRT-PCR technique. The findings of this study revealed the prevalence of SARS-COV-2 genomes from the raw wastewater samples across the urban and peri-urban study sites with the concentrations that ranged from 0.22 × 103 to 17.60 × 103 genome copies per millilitre GC/mL. Furthermore, various environmental matrices were utilized in the present study to estimate the potential health risk to plant operators associated with the exposure toSARS-CoV-2 viral particles using the quantitative microbiological risk assessment QMRA model. Different exposure scenarios were employed for the QMRA model and the findings indicate a probability of infection ranging from 0.93 percent to 37.81 percent across the study sites. Overall, the findings obtained in the current study highlight the bothersome concerns that reveal sewage systems as a transmission pathway for the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 genomes in the environment. Therefore, this study accentuates the need for continued surveillance and constant environmental monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 other microbial pathogens through the wastewater based epidemiological model to timeously detect and recognize possible infections at a community level.
- Description
- Thesis (MSci) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2024
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xii, 74 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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- Visitors: 6
- Downloads: 1
Collections
UFH Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Balisa Nqwala Dissertation 2024.pdf | 24 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |