Wastewater based epidemiology as a surveillance tool during the current COVID-19 pandemic on a college campus (East Carolina University) and its accuracy in predicting SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in dormitories.

The COVID-19 outbreak led governmental officials to close many businesses and schools, including colleges and universities. Thus, the ability to resume normal campus operation required adoption of safety measures to monitor and respond to COVID-19. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of wastewater-based epidemiology as a surveillance method in monitoring COVID-19 on a college campus. The use of wastewater monitoring as part of a surveillance program to control COVID-19 outbreaks at East Carolina University was evaluated. During the Spring and Fall 2021 semesters, wastewater samples (N = 830) were collected every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from the sewer pipes exiting the dormitories on campus. Samples were analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 and viral quantification was determined using qRT-PCR. During the Spring 2021 semester, there was a significant difference in SARS-CoV-2 virus copies in wastewater when comparing dorms with the highest number student cases of COVID-19 and those with the lowest number of student cases, (p = 0.002). Additionally, during the Fall 2021 semester it was observed that when weekly virus concentrations exceeded 20 copies per ml, there were new confirmed COVID-19 cases 85% of the time during the following week. Increases in wastewater viral concentration spurred COVID-19 swab testing for students residing in dormitories, aiding university officials in effectively applying COVID testing policies. This study showed wastewater-based epidemiology can be a cost-effective surveillance tool to guide other surveilling methods (e.g., contact tracing, nasal/salvia testing, etc.) to identify and isolate afflicted individuals to reduce the spread of pathogens and potential outbreaks within a community.

Gynecological Health Complaints Among College Women With Sexual Victimization Histories: Examination of Depression and Anxiety as Potential Mediators.

PURPOSE: The study's purpose was to examine the relation between sexual victimization history and gynecological health complaints among college women. A further aim was to explore whether anxiety and depression are mediators of this relation, as well as to examine the size of these indirect relations among individuals with different types of victimization histories (childhood sexual abuse, adolescent/adult sexual assault, combined childhood sexual abuse/adolescent/adult sexual assault). METHODS: A sample of 1,759 undergraduate cisgender women attending a large Southeastern U.S. university completed online measures of lifetime sexual victimization history, current anxiety and depression, and current gynecological health complaints (dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, vaginal discharge, pain during urination, and pelvic pain). Mediation analyses with bootstrapping were conducted to explore the relations among study variables. RESULTS: College women with a history of sexual victimization were significantly more likely to report experiencing the gynecological health complaints in the past month than women with no sexual victimization history (all ps < .05). There was a significant indirect path from sexual victimization to gynecological health complaints through both anxiety and depression for all three victimization types (ßs = 0.12-0.26). The indirect paths were stronger for women with combined childhood sexual abuse/adolescent/adult sexual assault histories as compared with the other two types of victimization history. CONCLUSIONS: Health care providers working with college women should implement a trauma-informed approach to addressing gynecological health complaints that recognizes that sexual victimization survivors are at an increased risk for these issues. Further, anxiety and depression represent possible mechanisms of risk for gynecological health complaints among survivors.