Assessment of water and sanitation systems at Palestinian healthcare facilities: pre- and post-COVID-19

Wastewater treatment from a science faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic by using ammonium-oxidising and heterotrophic bacteria

During and after the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the use of personal care products and disinfectants increased in universities worldwide. Among these, quaternary ammonium-based products stand out; these compounds and their intermediates caused substantial changes in the chemical composition of the wastewater produced by these institutions. For this reason, improvements and environmentally sustainable biological alternatives were introduced in the existing treatment systems so that these institutions could continue their research and teaching activities. For this reason, the objective of this study was to develop an improved culture medium to cultivate ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) to increase the biomass and use them in the treatment of wastewater produced in a faculty of sciences in Bogotá, D.C., Colombia. A Plackett Burman Experimental Design (PBED) and growth curves served for oligotrophic culture medium, and production conditions improved for the AOB. Finally, these bacteria were used with total heterotrophic bacteria (THB) for wastewater treatment in a pilot plant. Modification of base ammonium broth and culture conditions (6607 mg L-1 of (NH4)2SO4, 84 mg L-1 CaCO3, 40 mg L-1 MgSO4·7H2O, 40 mg L-1 CaCl2·2H2O and 200 mg L-1 KH2PO4, 10% (w/v) inoculum, no copper addition, pH 7.0 ± 0.2, 200 r.p.m., 30 days) favoured the growth of Nitrosomonas europea, Nitrosococcus oceani, and Nitrosospira multiformis with values of 8.23 ± 1.9, 7.56 ± 0.7 and 4.2 ± 0.4 Log10 CFU mL-1, respectively. NO2- production was 0.396 ± 0.0264, 0.247 ± 0.013 and 0.185 ± 0.003 mg L-1 for Nitrosomonas europea, Nitrosococcus oceani and Nitrosospira multiformis. After the 5-day wastewater treatment (WW) by co-inoculating the three studied bacteria in the wastewater (with their self-microorganisms), the concentrations of AOB and THB were 5.92 and 9.3 Log10 CFU mL-1, respectively. These values were related to the oxidative decrease of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), (39.5 mg L-1), Ammonium ion (NH4+), (6.5 mg L-1) Nitrite (NO2-), (2.0 mg L-1) and Nitrate (NO3-), (1.5 mg L-1), respectively in the five days of treatment. It was concluded, with the improvement of a culture medium and production conditions for three AOB through biotechnological strategies at the laboratory scale, being a promising alternative to bio-augment of the biomass of the studied bacteria under controlled conditions that allow the aerobic removal of COD and nitrogen cycle intermediates present in the studied wastewater.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-024-03961-4.

Does medical waste research during COVID-19 meet the challenge induced by the pandemic to waste management?

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented amount of medical waste, presenting significant challenges for the safe disposal of hazardous waste. A systematic review of existing research on COVID-19 and medical waste can help address these challenges by providing insights and recommendations for effective management of the massive medical waste generated during the pandemic. This study utilized bibliometric and text mining methods to survey the scientific outcomes related to COVID-19 and medical waste, drawing on data from the Scopus database. The results show that the spatial distribution of medical waste research is unbalanced. Surprisingly, developing countries rather than developed countries lead research in this area. Especially, China, a major contributor to the field, has the highest number of publications and citations, and is also a centre of international cooperation. The main study authors and research institutions are also mainly from China. And the research on medical waste is a multidisciplinary field. Text mining analysis shows that COVID-19 and medical waste research is mainly organized around four themes: (i) medical waste from personal protective equipment; (ii) research on medical waste in Wuhan, China; (iii) threats of medical waste to the environment and (iv) disposal and management of medical waste. This would serve to better understand the current state of medical waste research and to provide some implications for future research.

The impact of climate change on cancer nursing in Palestine

Cancer is the third leading cause of death in Palestine, with many cancers diagnosed at a late stage. In contrast to the developed world, two thirds of cancer diagnoses occur between the ages of 15 and 64, moreover, 10% of all cancer diagnoses occur in children under the age of 10 (compared to 0.05% of all new cancer diagnoses in the UK). Cancer nursing as a speciality in Palestine is newly established in the last 5 years; partly helped by the introduction of the Higher Diploma in Cancer and Palliative Care Nursing, and more recently the delivery of the first intake of the Master of Science in Cancer and Palliative Care Nursing at Bethlehem University. There are many challenges faced by cancer patients and nurses in Palestine; there is only one facility in the West Bank that delivers radiotherapy, 2 PET-CT scanners for the whole of the West Bank, with no PET-CT or radiotherapy facilities in Gaza. There are 2 haematology units in the West Bank that perform autologous stem cell transplants for adults and any haematology patient (adult or child) requiring an allogeneic stem cell/bone marrow transplant has to be referred to neighbouring Israel or Jordan. Climate change might have both a direct and indirect impact on the growth of cancers and on cancer treatment and oncology nurses. Over the last 150 years the planet has warmed by over one degree Celsius resulting in disastrous consequences for the environment. Nurses make up the largest number of the healthcare workforce and are ideally placed to have a positive impact on the global warming crisis due to their leadership roles as well as their work in health promotion. They equally do a lot to help cancer patients to deal with its effects and often care for patients from marginalised groups. It is important for nurses to take the lead and move immediately to make health systems more resistant to climate change.

Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA contamination in water supply resources of Tabriz metropolitan during a peak of COVID-19 pandemic

It is crucial to have access to clean water resources during the COVID-19 pandemic for hygiene, since virus infection through wastewater leaks in metropolitan areas can be a threat. Accurate monitoring of urban water resources during the pandemic seems to be the only way to confirm safe and infected resources. Here, in this study, the amount of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2's Ribonucleic Acid (SARS-CoV-2 RNA) in the Tabriz urban water network located in the northwest of Iran was investigated by an extensive sampling of the city's water sources at a severe peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sampling process comprised a range of water sources, including wells, qanats, water treatment facilities, dams, and reservoirs. For each sample, a combination of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and sodium chloride (NaCl) was used for concentration and a laboratory RNA-based method was conducted for quantification. Before applying the extraction and quantification procedure to real samples, the proposed concentration method was verified with synthetic serum samples for the first time. After the concentration, RNA extraction was done by the BehPrep extraction column method, and Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) detection of the virus was done by Covitech COVID-19 RT-PCR kit. In none of the water supply resources, SARS-COV-2 RNA has been detected except in a sample grabbed from a well adjacent to an urban wastewater discharge point downstream. The results of molecular analysis for the positive sample showed that the CT value and concentration of the virus genome were equal to 32.57 and 5720 copies/L, respectively. Quantitative analysis of real samples shows that the city's water network was safe at the time of the study. However, given that the positive sample was exposed to wastewater leakage, periodic sampling from wells and qanats is suggested during the pandemic until it can be proven that the leakage to these water sources is impossible.

SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste: A review about virus surveillance, infectivity, and inactivation

This review discusses the techniques available for detecting and inactivating of pathogens in municipal wastewater, landfill leachate, and solid waste. In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 is being given special attention, with a thorough examination of all possible transmission pathways linked to the selected waste matrices. Despite the lack of works focused on landfill leachate, a systematic review method, based on cluster analysis, allows to analyze the available papers devoted to sewage sludge and wastewater, allowing to focalize the work on technologies able to detect and treat pathogens. In this work, great attention is also devoted to infectivity and transmission mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, the literature analysis shows that sewage sludge and landfill leachate seem to have a remote chance to act as a virus transmission route (pollution-to-human transmission) due to improper collection and treatment of municipal wastewater and solid waste. However due to the incertitude about virus infectivity, these possibilities cannot be excluded and need further investigation. As a conclusion, this paper shows that additional research is required not only on the coronavirus-specific disinfection, but also the regular surveillance or monitoring of viral loads in sewage sludge, wastewater, and landfill leachate. The disinfection strategies need to be optimized in terms of dosage and potential adverse impacts like antimicrobial resistance, among many other factors. Finally, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic microorganisms in sewage sludge, wastewater, and landfill leachate can hamper the possibility to ensure safe water and public health in economically marginalized countries and hinder the realization of the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The impact of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in water: potential risks

This review summarizes research data on SARS-CoV-2 in water environments. A literature survey was conducted using the electronic databases Science Direct, Scopus, and Springer. This complete research included and discussed relevant studies that involve the (1) introduction, (2) definition and features of coronavirus, (2.1) structure and classification, (3) effects on public health, (4) transmission, (5) detection methods, (6) impact of COVID-19 on the water sector (drinking water, cycle water, surface water, wastewater), (6.5) wastewater treatment, and (7) future trends. The results show contamination of clean water sources, and community drinking water is vulnerable. Additionally, there is evidence that sputum, feces, and urine contain SARS-CoV-2, which can maintain its viability in sewage and the urban-rural water cycle to move towards seawater or freshwater; thus, the risk associated with contracting COVID-19 from contact with untreated water or inadequately treated wastewater is high. Moreover, viral loads have been detected in surface water, although the risk is lower for countries that efficiently treat their wastewater. Further investigation is immediately required to determine the persistence and mobility of SARS-CoV-2 in polluted water and sewage as well as the possible potential of disease transmission via drinking water. Conventional wastewater treatment systems have been shown to be effective in removing the virus, which plays an important role in pandemic control. Monitoring of this virus in water is extremely important as it can provide information on the prevalence and distribution of the COVID-19 pandemic in different communities as well as possible infection dynamics to prevent future outbreaks.

Reliability of thermal desalination (solar stills) for water/wastewater treatment in light of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus "SARS-CoV-2") pandemic: What should consider?

The COVID-19 pandemic disturbed the world from the beginning of 2020. The high excessive number of patients and the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 in human excreta and urine even after the infected person's respiratory tests were negative, results in a heavy load of viral in various water bodies and mostly untreated wastewaters. In the present study, the reliability of using small-scale solar thermal desalination systems (solar stills) during a situation like the COVID-19 pandemic is discussed. Pollution of water bodies through the SARS-CoV-2 via numerous routes increases the risk of contaminating the feed water and subsequently the whole structure of solar stills. Since the transmission of pathogens (particle size: 0.5-3 μm) via droplets of water in solar still is reported before, transmitting of SARS-CoV-2 via droplets of water which multiple times smaller (particle size: 60-140 nm) than those pathogens is a concern. The most important issue which must be highlighted is that solar stills worked at low-temperature while the viability and survival of the SARS-CoV-2 in various water matrices in the temperature range (4-37 °C) for several days is reported. In this regard, using solar stills during the COVID-19 pandemic need further consideration by all researchers and people around the world.

Direct and indirect effects of SARS-CoV-2 on wastewater treatment

The novel SARS-CoV-2 is expanding internationally. While the current focus is on limiting its transmission from direct contact with infected patients and surfaces during the pandemic, the secondary transmission potential via sewage should not be underestimated, especially in low-income and developing countries with weak wastewater treatment technologies. Recent studies have indicated SARS-CoV-2 positivity also be detected in the feces of patients. Therefore, the risk of transmission and infection can be increased into sewage by the fecal-oral way, mainly in some parts of the globe with a high amount of open defecation. This review collected scattered data and recent studies about the direct and indirect effects of coronavirus in the water cycle. The direct impacts of COVID-19 on wastewater are related to the presence of the coronavirus and suitable viral removal methods in different phases of treatment in wastewater treatment plants. The indirect effects of COVID-19 on wastewater are related to the overuse of cleaning and disinfecting products to protect against viral infection and the overuse of certain drugs to protect against virus or novel mental problems and panic to COVID-19 and consequently their presence in wastewater. This unexpected situation leads to changes in the quality of wastewater and brings adverse and harmful effects for the human, aquatic organisms, and the environment. Therefore, applying effective wastewater treatment technologies with low toxic by-products in wastewater treatment plants will be helpful to prevent the increasing occurrence of these extra contaminants in the environment.