Wastewater Surveillance
The coronavirus could turn sewage surveillance into a mainstream public health practice - Emily Anthes
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Are You Entitled to Privacy Over Your Pee and Poop?
I have made what you excrete my daily business for almost two decades now. That means retrieving, from municipal sewers, wastewater that was created by thousands of people, rushing it to the laboratory, and analyzing it for toxic chemicals, human pathogens and biomarkers of harmful exposures. We have been fighting both the opioid epidemic and COVID-19, creating in the process the world’s first open-access electronic dashboards displaying opioid and coronavirus abundance at the neighborhood level to help inform public health actions.
The results can be counted in hundreds of offhand jokes, thousands of news stories, and millions of lives improved. I even went to Capitol Hill in Washington…
Resources
Poop could be the key to tracking COVID-19 outbreaks
Searching wastewater for the coronavirus is fast, cheap, and anonymous.
Study Shows Covid-19 Can Be Detected In A Single Asymptomatic Person Through Wastewater Surveillance
Wastewater surveillance is an underused yet cost-effective, non-invasive mass testing strategy that can detect virus shed by symptomatic and asymptomatic people alike. Highly localized wastewater surveillance provides an alternative to contact tracing, an intervention that has been difficult to implement in many countries.
Testing sewage for covid-19
It’s a cheap and effective way to map the spread of infection.
Covid data show sewage monitoring could be vital in infection control
A pilot study’s analysis of schools’ wastewater shows its potential as an early warning system for public health teams.
From the Wastewater Drain, Solid Pandemic Data
The coronavirus could turn sewage surveillance into a mainstream public health practice.
How waste water is helping South Africa fight COVID-19
Detecting the coronavirus in samples from treatment plants could give early warning of outbreaks and new variants.
In Sewage, Scientists Find Not Just Waste, But Coronavirus Clues
Traces of the new virus in wastewater can potentially bolster surveillance efforts as countries look to end lockdowns.
It’s time to begin a national wastewater testing program for Covid-19
Simply testing individuals with symptoms won’t be enough to track how many people are infected. Given the high degree of asymptomatic spread — even in the absence of superspreading events — we need a national strategy that relies heavily on surveillance.
Old sewers are becoming a modern Covid-19 watchdog
Carson’s job that day was to set up one of eight wastewater monitoring sites across Campbell, Boone, and Kenton counties along Kentucky’s northern border. Today, those sites are monitoring Covid-19 activity, searching for viral signals in several hundred thousand people’s waste.
Sewage surveillance: How scientists track and identify diseases like COVID-19 before they spread
Putting wastewater monitoring and social media analysis together could detect community outbreaks that might have otherwise gone undetected because the approach identifies infected people who aren’t yet showing symptoms (presymptomatic) or who do not show symptoms (asymptomatic).
Wastewater Helps Health Officials Spot Covid-19 Warning Signs
More communities are monitoring sewage for viral traces; ‘We had a heads up.
Wastewater surveillance: a critical tool in pandemic management
Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 offers many public health benefits. History has shown that sewage testing is an effective method for the early detection of diseases. It’s a cost-effective way to survey the transmission dynamics of local communities, even down to specific streets within a community or a specific residential building on a university campus.
What You Flush Is Helping Track The Coronavirus
More than 100 cities are monitoring sewage for the presence of the coronavirus, and public health officials think wastewater could provide an early warning system to help detect future spikes.
Your Poop Might Be Key For Predicting the End of the Pandemic
Looking for the new coronavirus in wastewater could give us a heads up about where the outbreak is spreading—and when it has started to dissipate.
Are You Entitled to Privacy Over Your Pee and Poop?
Anything powerful can be harnessed for purposes good and bad. What you flush in the restroom is no exception.
One Water One Health
Our technology has helped trigger the nationwide FDA ban of risky antimicrobials. 80,000 more chemicals may pose similar risks! We turn wastewater treatment plants into chemical observatories to protect you and the environment.
CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with agencies throughout the federal government, are initiating the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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