The challenges of informative wastewater sampling for SARS-CoV-2 must be met: lessons from polio eradication

Since the emergence and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have rapidly expanded their viral surveillance systems. Wastewater sampling has been increasingly implemented, as substantial quantities of SARS-CoV-2 are shed in the stool of infected individuals.1 So far, wastewater sampling has retrospectively shown that virus is present in cities several months before large COVID-19 outbreaks,2 that there is a correlation between quantitative RT-PCR data and the reported incidence of cases,3 and that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is ubiquitous.