Wastewater analyzes could be used to anticipate the return of Covid-19 once the pandemic is over. We could also have a much better appreciation of the number of people infected.
We know that many infectious diseases wax and wane with the seasons. The current pandemic is likely to subside in the coming months, thanks to the restriction measures put in place in many affected countries, but it is possible that Covid-19 exhibits flu-like behavior. In other words, the virus could eventually come to visit us in successive waves.
While waiting for a possible vaccine to be developed or for a particle to be isolated with the aim of immunizing or treating the population, it will be necessary to monitor the first signs of return of the disease . We could thus limit the health and economic damage.
Sewage monitoring, an already well-established method for detecting the presence of poliovirus, bacteria resistant to antibiotics or certain drugs, could be an effective means of surveillance.
Studies have indeed shown that the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 can appear in feces within three days of infection , long before affected individuals develop their first symptoms. Monitoring these viral particles in wastewater could therefore, in the long term, give us a head start, prompting us to reinstate this or that restriction measure.
“Systematic wastewater monitoring could be used as a non-invasive early warning tool to alert communities to new COVID-19 infections confirms Ana Maria de Roda Husman, infectious disease researcher at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven.
It was also confirmed in the field. On March 5, the biologist and her team indeed detected the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the sewage system of Amersfoort, south-east of Amsterdam, before a first case appeared. be officially reported in the city. This is just one example; traces of the virus have also been spotted in the United States and Sweden as well.
This type of analysis, in addition to warning us of the return of the disease, could also give us a more precise indication of the number of viral infections in each population.
To date, only patients with severe symptoms are indeed tested in the laboratories. Which means that the reported figures underestimate the real number of patients with Covid-19 . Through regular wastewater measurements, researchers could, however, have a more global view of the health situation, taking into account cases that have not been tested because of mild or no symptoms.
Source
