A5021949142- SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing
- SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Biosensors and Analytical Detection
- Respiratory viral infections research
- COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- COVID-19 diagnosis using AI
- Virology and Viral Diseases
- Microwave Imaging and Scattering Analysis
- Poxvirus research and outbreaks
- Mobile Crowdsensing and Crowdsourcing
- Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
- Mycobacterium research and diagnosis
- Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
- Bacillus and Francisella bacterial research
- Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
- Healthcare and Environmental Waste Management
- Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation
- Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques
- Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology
- Water Systems and Optimization
- Plant Virus Research Studies
- Pneumonia and Respiratory Infections
- Distributed Sensor Networks and Detection Algorithms
- Air Quality Monitoring and Forecasting
University of Ottawa
2021-2025
Recurrent influenza epidemics and pandemic potential are significant risks to global health. Public health authorities use clinical surveillance locate monitor influenza-like cases outbreaks mitigate hospitalizations deaths. Currently, integration of is the only reliable method for reporting types subtypes warn emergent strains. The utility wastewater (WWS) during COVID-19 as a less resource intensive replacement or complement has been predicated on analyzing viral fragments in wastewater....
Abstract Wastewater surveillance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) commonly applies reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to quantify severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA concentrations in wastewater over time. In most applications worldwide, maximal sensitivity and specificity RT-qPCR has been achieved, part, by monitoring two or more genomic loci SARS-CoV-2. Ontario, Canada, the provincial Surveillance Initiative reports average copies...
Clinical testing has been the cornerstone of public health monitoring and infection control efforts in communities throughout COVID-19 pandemic. With anticipated reduction clinical as disease moves into an endemic state, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance (WWS) will have greater value important diagnostic tool. An in-depth analysis understanding metrics derived from WWS is required to interpret utilize WWS-acquired data effectively (McClary-Gutierrez et al., 2021; O'Keeffe, 2021). In this...
Introduction Detection of community respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections informs the timing immunoprophylaxis programs and hospital preparedness for surging pediatric volumes. In many jurisdictions, this relies upon RSV clinical test positivity hospitalization (RSVH) trends, which are lagging indicators. Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) may be a novel strategy to accurately identify start season guide administration preparedness. Methods We compared citywide wastewater samples...
Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, Province of Ontario, Canada, launched a wastewater surveillance program to monitor SARS-CoV-2, inspired by early work and successful forecasts waves in city Ottawa, Ontario. This manuscript presents dataset from January 1, 2021, March 31, 2023, with RT-qPCR results for SARS-CoV-2 genes PMMoV 107 sites across all 34 public health units covering 72% province’s 26.2% Canada’s population. Sampling occurred 2–7 times weekly, including geographical...
Clinical genomic surveillance is regarded as the gold standard for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants globally. However, pandemic wanes, reduced testing poses a risk to effectively tracking trajectory of these within populations. Wastewater-based that estimates variant frequency based on its defining set alleles derived from clinical has been successfully implemented. This method challenges, and allele-specific (AS) RT-qPCR or RT-dPCR may instead be used complementary estimating prevalence....
Abstract Background Clinical genomic surveillance is the gold standard for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants globally, but as pandemic wanes, reduced testing increases risk of missing emergence concern or failing to accurately follow their trajectory in populations. Wastewater-based (WWS) that estimates variant frequency based on its defining set alleles derived from clinical has been successfully implemented. However, this method challenges, and allele-specific (AS) RT-qPCR monitors a single,...
Abstract Background The emergence of COVID-19 in Canada prompted extensive efforts population-wide surveillance, including wastewater-based surveillance (WBS). WBS offers insights into the prevalence infectious disease burden, however, reasons for poor correlation between hospital admissions and wastewater viral signal some locations across Ontario remain unclear, while others demonstrate remarkable correlations. This study aims to elucidate parameters influencing hospitalization-WBS quality...
The recent global resurgence of measles in 2023–2024, despite vaccine preventability, underscores a critical public health issue, largely due to reduced vaccination coverage during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In response, Ottawa Public Health intensified efforts 2023 and 2024. Additionally, research initiative began April 2024 monitor wastewater for virus (MeV) using established environmental surveillance (WES) protocols. Unexpected positive MeV detections through RT-qPCR wastewater─despite no...
The emergence of COVID-19 in Canada has led to over 4.9 million cases and 59,000 deaths by May 2024. Traditional clinical surveillance metrics (hospital admissions laboratory-positive cases) were complemented with wastewater environmental monitoring (WEM) monitor SARS-CoV-2 incidence. However, challenges public health integration WEM persist due perceived limitations data quality, potentially driving inconsistent correlations variability lead times. This study investigates how factors like...
Recent MPOX viral resurgences have mobilized public health agencies around the world. Recognizing significant risk of outbreaks, large-scale human testing, and immunization campaigns been initiated by local, national, global authorities. Recently, traditional clinical surveillance for complemented with wastewater (WWS), building on effectiveness existing programs that were built to monitor SARS-CoV-2 recently expanded include influenza respiratory syncytial virus in wastewaters. In present...
Abstract This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the decay patterns endogenous SARS-CoV-2 and Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) within wastewaters spiked with stool from infected patients expressing COVID-19 symptoms, hence explores PMMoV targets in source to collection sample. Stool samples were used as viral material more accurately mirror real-world processes compared traditionally lab-propagated spike-ins. As such, this includes data on early stages that are typically overlooked...
Abstract Recurrent epidemics of influenza infection and its pandemic potential present a significant risk to global population health. To mitigate hospitalizations death, local public health relies on clinical surveillance locate monitor influenza-like illnesses and/or cases outbreaks. At an international level, the integration networks is only reliable method report types subtypes warn emergent strain. During COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrated utility wastewater (WWS) in complementing or even...
Abstract Wastewater-based epidemiology/wastewater surveillance has been a topic of significant interest over the last year due to its application in SARS-CoV-2 track prevalence COVID-19 communities. Although applied more than 50 countries date, this largely focused on relatively affluent urban and peri-urban As such, there is knowledge gap regarding implementation reliable wastewater small rural communities for purpose tracking rates incidence other pathogens or biomarkers. This study...
Abstract The recent global resurgence of measles in 2023-2024, despite its preventability through vaccination, is a significant public health concern largely driven by decreased vaccination coverage during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. To address this and to restore vaccine disrupted pandemic, Ottawa Public Health intensified efforts 2023 2024. Additionally, research initiative began April 2024 monitor wastewater for virus (MeV) using established environmental surveillance (WES) protocols. Given...
Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is increasingly used for monitoring disease targets in wastewaters around the world. This study, performed Ottawa, Canada, identifies a decrease SARS-CoV-2 wastewater measurements during snowmelt-induced sewer flushing events. Observations first revealed correlation between suppressed viral and periods of increased sewage flowrates, air temperatures above 0 °C winter months, solids mass flux increases. These correlations suggest that high flowrates from...
Three new probe-based quantitative PCR assays were designed based on Chae et al. (2017), Perez-Osorio (2012), and Sales (2012) to quantitate Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) species, M. (MTB), bovis (MB) in wastewater targeting genomic regions rv0577, RD9, the deletion of RD4, respectively. The validated for specificity using four Mycobacterial including two MTBC species non-tuberculosis Mycobacteria endogenous samples from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Mumbai, India, a remote Northern...