Could a sewage-based coronavirus test provide faster and
better results than existing medical tests?
By: Ringo Bones
Current rapid coronavirus antibody tests recently got a bad
rap after providing a lot of false-positive results, but could testing a city
or community’s sewer system for the COVID 19 virus provide faster and more accurate
results? Scientists led by UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are working on
a standardized test to “count” the amount of coronavirus in a wastewater
sample. The test could pick up COVID 19 infection spikes up to 10 days earlier
than with existing medical based tests. Newcastle University’s Prof. David
Graham and his colleagues have now developed a way to quantify the genetic
material from the coronavirus.
Early in the COVID 19 pandemic, research revealed that
people infected with the virus “shed” viral material in their feces. That
insight prompted an interest in “sewage epidemiology”. A similar test used by
Chinese epidemiologists working with Italian health authorities during the
spring of 2020 produced test results showing that coronavirus could already had
been present in Italy near the end of December 2019. The researchers want to
fine tune and reproduce this test before it can be rolled out as part of a
COVID 19 alert system.
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