PandemicsSeeking to ‘Flush’ out COVID-19 in Wastewater
Though it may seem a bit unsavory, studying human waste can tell us a lot about COVID-19 and give governments a leg up on containing the spread of the virus. Researchers can predict if the coronavirus might attack a community by checking sewers for viral fragments in the community’s poop.
Back in July, scientists detected noninfective fragments of coronavirus RNA in raw sewage at Yosemite National Park, revealing, unfortunately, that visitors had been carrying—and depositing—the virus since the park reopened the previous month.
Though it may seem a bit unsavory, studying human waste can tell us a lot about COVID-19 and give governments a leg up on containing the spread of the virus. Researchers can predict if the coronavirus might attack a community by checking sewers for viral fragments in the community’s poop; preliminary studies from earlier this year, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), academia, and other research organizations, indicated that communities might see an increase of the coronavirus in wastewater two to four days before a spike in hospitalizations. Using this wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach, the public health community is banding together to identify and treat health threats in a non-invasive way.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently joined a multiagency WBE initiative that will not only gather virus data from sewer systems but standardize the science. The coalition is led by the CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System, whose goal is to turn sewers into health monitors. CDC is also collaborating with the Department of Health and Human Services and agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and DHS, to accelerate the WBE research. The goal is to better understand the spread of the virus in communities to contain and defeat it.
Collectively, WBE isn’t focusing on an individual’s health. Here, the testing is focused on the health of whole communities to get ahead of, and flatten, the curve during the pandemic. Instead of testing everyone, scientists can use this method to screen for areas in which populations should be offered more testing and encourage these populations to strictly follow emergency public health guidelines.
For its part, S&T is working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Louisville School of Medicine to develop guidelines to standardize WBE testing methods nationwide. Because there are currently many ways to test wastewater, data gathered from across the U.S. could be difficult to compare; using the new standards, the data can be more readily shared and compared across cities, states and regions to inform more effective healthcare decisions.
