ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1640581
This article is part of the Research TopicSARS-CoV-2: Virology, Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Pathogenesis and Control, Volume IIView all 12 articles
Temporal Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Wastewater and Population Infection Trends in Mexico City
Provisionally accepted
Miguel Atl Silva-Magaña1
Marisa Mazari-Hiriart2
Adalberto Noyola-Robles3
Ana C Espinosa-Garcia2
Guillermo De Anda Jáuregui1*
Enrique Hernandez-Lemus1*- 1Computational Genomics, National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- 2Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Instituto de Ecologia, Mexico City, Mexico
- 3Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Instituto de Ingenieria, Mexico City, Mexico
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) offers a non-invasive, community-level monitoring approach for tracking infectious diseases like COVID-19. This study aimed to evaluate the temporal dynamics between SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater and infection trends in adjacent populations at Mexico City. Forty samples were collected during two distinct time blocks (April–September 2021 and November 2021–February 2022) from the Copilco neighborhood, coinciding with peaks in local COVID-19 cases. An optimized one-step RT-qPCR protocol targeting the N1 gene of SARS-CoV-2 achieved 96.7\% efficiency and a detection limit of 10 copies/$\upmu$L. Spatial analysis delineated three proximity zones based on drainage system topology. Viral genome counts were correlated with confirmed COVID-19 cases using cross-correlation analysis, showing significant temporal lags (6–8 days). The findings demonstrate WBE’s utility in early infection detection and potential for public health decision-making.
Keywords: Waste-water based epidemiology, COVID-19, SARS-CoV2, temporal dynamics, predictive models, early signals
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Silva-Magaña, Mazari-Hiriart, Noyola-Robles, Espinosa-Garcia, De Anda Jáuregui and Hernandez-Lemus. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Guillermo De Anda Jáuregui, Computational Genomics, National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
Enrique Hernandez-Lemus, Computational Genomics, National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.