Investigating the removal of some pharmaceutical compounds in hospital wastewater treatment plants operating in Saudi Arabia

The concentrations of 12 pharmaceutical compounds (atenolol, erythromycin, cyclophosphamide, paracetamol, bezafibrate, carbamazepine, ciprofloxacin, caffeine, clarithromycin, lidocaine, sulfamethoxazole and Nacetylsulfamethoxazol (NACS)) were investigated in the influents and effluents of two hospital wastewater treatment plants (HWWTPs) in Saudi Arabia. The majority of the target analytes were detected in the influent samples apart from bezafibrate, cyclophosphamide, and erythromycin. Caffeine and paracetamol were detected in the influent at particularly high concentrations up to 75 and 12 ug/L, respectively. High removal efficiencies of the pharmaceutical compounds were observed in both HWWTPs, with greater than 90 % removal on average. Paracetamol, sulfamethoxazole, NACS, ciprofloxacin, and caffeine were eliminated by between >95 and >99 % on average. Atenolol, carbamazepine, and clarithromycin were eliminated by >86 % on average. Of particular interest were the high removal efficiencies of carbamazepine and antibiotics that were achieved by the HWWTPs; these compounds have been reported to be relatively recalcitrant to biological treatment and are generally only partially removed. Elevated temperatures and high levels of sunlight were considered to be the main factors that enhanced the removal of these compounds

Estimating the minimum number of SARS-CoV-2 infected cases needed to detect viral RNA in wastewater: To what extent of the outbreak can surveillance of wastewater tell us?

There is increasing interest in wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) of SARS-CoV-2 RNA to serve as an early warning system for a community. Despite successful detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewaters sampled from multiple locations, there is still no clear idea on the minimal number of cases in a community that are associated with a positive detection of the virus in wastewater. To address this knowledge gap, we sampled wastewaters from a septic tank (n = 57) and biological activated sludge tank (n = 52) located on-site of a hospital. The hospital is providing treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, with the number of hospitalized patients per day known. It was observed that depending on which nucleocapsid gene is targeted by means of RT-qPCR, a range of 253-409 positive cases out of 10,000 persons are required prior to detecting RNA SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. There was a weak correlation between N1 and N2 gene abundances in wastewater with the number of hospitalized cases. This correlation was however not observed for N3 gene. The frequency of detecting N1 and N2 gene in wastewater was also higher than that for N3 gene. Furthermore, nucleocapsid genes of SARS-CoV-2 were detected at lower frequency in the partially treated wastewater than in the septic tank. In particular, N1 gene abundance was associated with water quality parameters such as total organic carbon and pH. In instances of positive detection, the average abundance of N1 and N3 genes in the activated sludge tank were reduced by 50 and 70% of the levels detected in septic tank, suggesting degradation of the SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments already occurring in the early stages of the wastewater treatment process

ACCEPTANCE OF PATIENTS FOR EXAMINATION OF ANAL DISEASES

Background:In clinical practice, anal problems are often underappreciated. Patients often hide their atypical symptom presentation, according to research, which delays diagnosis and therapy. The management by primary care physicians is inadequately characterized.The aim of the present research was to understand the issues of anal diseases that people suffer from and their problems in accepting the examination of anal diseases. Methods:This research work involved following a cross-sectional approach of study and therefore included collecting first-hand data. This was accomplished through the conduction of the survey and data that are considered through the conduction of the survey are quantitative in nature. This would help in determining the acceptance of patients for examination of anal disease. The method that would be employed for considering the size of the sample is stratified random sampling. The survey involved conducting a survey of patients with anal disease. Results: Of 884 participants included in the current study, 578 accept to be examined for anal disease (65.4%). Half of study participants agreed that anal disease has increased in the recent times (n= 438, 49.5%). Most of study participants believed that eating habits have a role in the development of anal disease (n= 657, 74.3%). In addition, about a third of study participants suffered from chronic anal disease (n= 281, 31.8%). More than half of study participants believe in the need of clinical examination and importance of treatment (n= 455, 51.4%). Anal pain was the most frequent issue experienced by study participants (n= 338, 38.2%). Conclusion:The studys findings revealed that half of the people in this survey who were asked their opinion on the prevalence of anal illness agreed that it had grown in recent years. The majority of the people in this research thought that their diet had a contribution in the onset of their illness. Moreover, 66 percent of those surveyed agree that clinical examinations should not make them feel uncomfortable. A majority of research participants reported experiencing anal discomfort