Publications
American journal of public healthMay 2025 |
e1-e5
DOI:
10.2105/AJPH.2025.308146

Sequencing-Based Detection of Measles in Wastewater: Texas, January 2025

Javornik Cregeen, Sara; Tisza, Michael J; Hanson, Blake; Cook, Marissa; Surathu, Anil; Schneider, Rebecca; Wu, Jingjing; Short, Kirstin; Domakonda, Kaavya; Hopkins, Loren; Ross, Matthew C; Petrosino, Joseph F; Deegan, Jennifer; Stadler, Lauren B; Boerwinkle, Eric; Maresso, Anthony
Product Used
Variant Libraries
Abstract
Measles is a potentially deadly viral infection spread via respiratory droplets from infected individuals. Outbreaks occur when vaccine coverage drops below the threshold of herd, or community, immunity. Using a sequencing-based approach, we report the prospective (January 7, 2025) detection of measles in nucleic acid extracts from 2 wastewater treatment plants in Houston, Texas, with a population of more than 218 000 residents. The sequencing data from 2 samples contained 53 unique reads mapping to 11 different regions of the measles virus genome with a 99.4% match to genotype B3. Importantly, no detections were observed from 821 previous samples from the same city spanning nearly 3 years of monitoring. The findings were confirmed using droplet digital polymerase chain reaction. A concomitant investigation identified 2 unvaccinated measles-positive travelers living within the same sewershed as the wastewater detection event. This work suggests that sequencing-based wastewater analysis is valuable as a comprehensive early detection warning system that facilitates more targeted epidemiological investigation. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print May 8, 2025:e1-e5. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308146).
Product Used
Variant Libraries

Related Publications