Monitoring the new coronavirus in sewage can help prevent a second outbreak

, June 19 (Xinhua Yue Dongxing Baixu) With the development of the new crown epidemic, multi-national researchers are trying to use sewage-based epidemiological research as a tool to monitor the new crown virus. Australia's Federal Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) issued a communique on the 19th, said the agency's team found a low-cost, fast and efficient way to monitor the spread of the new coronavirus in the community through sewage, will help prevent a second outbreak.
said researchers had previously detected fragments of the new coronavirus ICTs in untreated sewage at two sewage treatment plants in south-east Queensland. The new study, published recently in the American journal Holistic Environmental Science, further tested seven ways to extract information about new coronavirus from sewage and identified one of the most cost-effective and efficient, with each sample currently treated in just 15 to 30 minutes.
studies have shown that sewage samples can be analyzed to understand the new coronavirus infection in the community, whether or not someone has already developed symptoms of infection. CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall said the findings would help communities avoid a second outbreak as outbreak prevention and control measures were eased.
previous studies have shown that sewage treatment plants around the world can monitor virus infections in 2.1 billion people, while sewage-based monitoring combined with clinical testing could save billions of dollars. For resource-poor countries and regions, sewage-based outbreak research may be the only viable way to effectively monitor the virus.
results will be shared with a new global collaborative project, COVID-19 Sewage-Based Epidemiological Research, to help prevent and control the new crown outbreak, the statement said.