Using Wastewater to Detect and Track Coronavirus SARS2

[audreyh1]

Really interesting article about using wastewater to detect and trace the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. They were able are reuse technology that had been used to trace opioid use in communities, among other things.

There were no reports of coronavirus in Yosemite. Then they tested the park’s sewage https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/...ports-of-coronavirus-in-Yosemite-15414351.php

Like a lot of the rural West, Yosemite National Park stood as a safe haven from the coronavirus. No park employees or residents tested positive. No visitors reported being sick. The fresh air and open space seemed immune.

That’s until local health officials started looking for the coronavirus in the park’s raw sewage — that’s right, the poop. This week, lab analysis of feces at two wastewater treatment plants serving Yosemite revealed the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. Dozens of people in Yosemite Valley are believed to have been infected.

“It’s one thing to live in denial: We live in the mountains, no one’s sick,” said Eric Sergienko, the health officer for Mariposa County, who is overseeing coronavirus testing in the Yosemite area. “But we can now confirm it’s here.”

With the pandemic surging across the country, more and more communities are keeping watch for the virus in wastewater. As foul as it may be, untreated sewage has long been used to track some of society’s most persistent ails, from illicit drugs to pollutants to disease. In 2013, a polio flare-up was famously identified through wastewater in northern Israel, helping authorities get a jump on containing the outbreak.

 

[Red Badger]

Paywall...

 

[audreyh1]

Paywall...

I don’t have a subscription but was able to read it.

Try searching on the title, which I gave in bold above the link. I tried that first which is how I got the link. I originally read it in Apple News app.

Sometimes using a private window works too.

I still seem able to access it from the link directly.

 

[Red Badger]

https://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2020/may/tracking-and-treating-covid19-in-human-waste.html

Another article about tracing C19 in wastewater. There's several on-line. This one's about validating that the virus is inactive in treated water. Others about the virus being identified in fecal matter months before the 2020 outbrake.

Summary - C19 is a sh!tty mess for all of us.

 

[Sunset]

I could see some limited value, in a small population community, don't need to test anyone if cannot find any, or start testing everyone if find some.

Seems pretty useless in a large city. As (IMHO) I feel it's guaranteed someone has it in every large city, or soon will, since people travel between cities.

 

[audreyh1]

I think it will be useful for broad monitoring, and certainly to double check whether a community that thinks it has no cases truly doesn’t.

 

[KenZ71]

So if the waste water indicates the virus is present but the residents don't have symptoms what does that mean?

A) the residents will be symptomatic soon?
B) the residents have some resistance ?
C) more research needed?

 

[audreyh1]

It simply means that infection is present in the community, but not yet detected via regular testing or reported illness.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Right, and the college where our kid is supposed to go in a few weeks is going to be doing this. Apparently, the degree of the virus present will help inform how often they require individual testing, and if it's present at more than trace levels for the campus, they may test each building's wastewater individually to help narrow down the focus. It's a good tool for larger environments like campuses or CCRCs.

 

[gailwinters]

Our facility was one of 350 in 40 states which underwent testing in May. For the first two weeks, no Covid was detected, but started showing up in the last two weeks. Based on the concentration of Covid, they estimated we had 12,500 cases at the end of May. Right now, based on 50,900 tests, we have had 4,160 positive cases. If the wastewater testing is accurate, we have three times more people infected than the tests show. The facility’s wastewater will continue to be tested every other week for the next year.