Paper microfluidic device enables rapid and on-site wastewater surveillance in community settings

Tracking genomic sequences as microbial biomarkers in wastewater has been used to determine community prevalence of infectious diseases, contributing to public health surveillance programs. Here we report upon a low-cost, rapid, and user-friendly paper microfluidic platform for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza detection, using a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), with the signal read simply using a mobile phone camera. Sample-to-answer results were collected in -1. The device was subsequently used for on-site testing of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples from four quarantine hotels at London Heathrow Airport, showing comparable results to those obtained using a gold-standard polymerase chain reaction assay, as reference. Our sensing platform, which enables rapid and localized wastewater surveillance and does not require the sample to be sent to a centralized laboratory, is potentially an important public health tool for a wide variety of future applications, in community settings.