Polo Montero, DavidQuintela-Baluja, MarcosCorbishley, AlexanderJones, Davey L.Singer, Andrew C.Graham, David W.López Romalde, Jesús2025-01-222025-01-222020-11-01David Polo, Marcos Quintela-Baluja, Alexander Corbishley, Davey L. Jones, Andrew C. Singer, David W. Graham, Jesús L. Romalde, Making waves: Wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19 – approaches and challenges for surveillance and prediction, Water Research, Volume 186, 2020, 116404, ISSN 0043-1354, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116404.0043-1354https://hdl.handle.net/10347/38882The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the feces of infected patients and wastewater has drawn attention, not only to the possibility of fecal-oral transmission but also to the use of wastewater as an epidemiological tool. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted problems in evaluating the epidemiological scope of the disease using classical surveillance approaches, due to a lack of diagnostic capacity, and their application to only a small proportion of the population. As in previous pandemics, statistics, particularly the propor- tion of the population infected, are believed to be widely underestimated. Furthermore, analysis of only clinical samples cannot predict outbreaks in a timely manner or easily capture asymptomatic carriers. Threfore, community-scale surveillance, including wastewater-based epidemiology, can bridge the broader community and the clinic, becoming a valuable indirect epidemiological prediction tool for SARS-CoV-2 and other pandemic viruses. This article summarizes current knowledge and discusses the critical factors for implementing wastewater-based epidemiology of COVID-19.eng© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY licenseWastewater-based epidemiologyEnvironmental monitoringCoronavirusSARS-CoV-2COVID-19Sewage242008 Virus respiratoriosjournal article10.1016/j.watres.2020.116404open access