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Doing Wastewater Epidemiology Becoming
Commonplace During COVID Pandemic
“Did you know you
might be taking a COVID test every time you poop? That’s the leadoff
question in a compelling news article from the University of British
Columbia that claims “wastewater epidemiology is changing the world”.
The evidence for the widespread analyzing of sewage samples for traces
of the SARS-CoV-2 virus comes from major cities around the world.
According to UBC
assistant professor Mohammed Rafi Arefin, this technology and
technique were rolled out in almost every major city in the world
within one year. Partly, that’s because the testing is relatively easy
to put in place using auto-sampling devices in the wastewater and using
a lab to detect and sequence the virus. The results have proven useful
at detecting community spread of the virus, according to the article,
and in doing so relatively quickly within a day after the virus is
excreted and enters the sewage system. The technology has also spread
widely because it is precise and affordable, according to Arefin.
Use in New Zealand
An example of the use
of the new technology come from Wellington New Zealand where the test
was able recently to pick up virus fragments and provide two weak
positive results taken at short intervals of each other, according to
a report from RNZ. The results were interpreted to suggest the virus
fragments may have come from recently recovered cases that are still
shedding the virus rather than from new cases. The technology is that
sensitive.
Meaning Of Virus
Fragments
Otago University
epidemiologist Michael Baker told local media “This is evidence
that there are people in Wellington who are shedding fragments of the
virus and they’re being picked up by the system. In some ways it’s a
good finding because it’s showing that the system can detect fragments
of the virus when they’re being passed out into the sewage system…At
the moment the role of sewage testing is still a bit unclear in terms
of whether it is going to give us a big edge, or whether it wil mainly
pick up outbreaks that are already apparent through other means.”
Unvetted Technology
For Arefin, the
questions about the technology are different because new technologies
rolled out like this in a crisis aren’t vetted for their ethical or
political, or social implications.
This raises questions
about, privacy, surveillance, and who owns the data. His goal is to
learn more about how this rapid shift in public health technology has
affected us all and how we can best aim to direct this newfound
capability in the future.
Baker agrees about the
need for review and stated “I do think we’re probably at the state of
hopefully doing a major review of this system, and I guess continually
reviewing of all our surveillance systems to see what’s the best mix
of approaches.”
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