Mary Wilson
Well-known member
By ANNA MEHROTRA, DAVID A. LARSEN, and ASHISH K. JHA
JULY 9, 2020
As the Covid-19 pandemic marches across America, causing record-breaking numbers of cases, almost every solution for controlling the disease includes more testing, especially as cities and states try to reopen. But with states hitting their limits on testing, we need new tools for understanding Covid-19 transmission. A national wastewater surveillance program offers a cost-effective approach to track Covid-19 across the majority of the U.S. population and provide early warnings of resurgence.
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.
People infected with SARS-CoV-2 shed the virus in their stool even before they show symptoms of Covid-19. Analyzing sewage for the virus, using methods like the ones used for testing individuals, can predict the community level of infection one week to two weeks in advance of clinical diagnoses, and show increasing and decreasing levels of coronavirus infection and transmission. Testing the wastewater of a nursing home, prison, or dormitory could potentially give an early signal that one or more residents are infected and therefore prompt testing of each resident.
National wastewater surveillance would require at least weekly testing at wastewater treatment plants and in sewers.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/09...m_source=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter_organic
JULY 9, 2020
As the Covid-19 pandemic marches across America, causing record-breaking numbers of cases, almost every solution for controlling the disease includes more testing, especially as cities and states try to reopen. But with states hitting their limits on testing, we need new tools for understanding Covid-19 transmission. A national wastewater surveillance program offers a cost-effective approach to track Covid-19 across the majority of the U.S. population and provide early warnings of resurgence.
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.
People infected with SARS-CoV-2 shed the virus in their stool even before they show symptoms of Covid-19. Analyzing sewage for the virus, using methods like the ones used for testing individuals, can predict the community level of infection one week to two weeks in advance of clinical diagnoses, and show increasing and decreasing levels of coronavirus infection and transmission. Testing the wastewater of a nursing home, prison, or dormitory could potentially give an early signal that one or more residents are infected and therefore prompt testing of each resident.
National wastewater surveillance would require at least weekly testing at wastewater treatment plants and in sewers.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/09...m_source=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter_organic