Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
scientificamerican.com
Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
1–10 of 62 posts
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#2I'm sure there are great reasons, but why is it that we can't detect the virus in wastewater at a personal level? Could this be a less invasive way to test for covid19?
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#3Interesting. That's also been done for recreational drugs. And artificial vanilla flavoring.
I wonder whether sampling from sewage pumping units could be done. That might produce higher resolution data. But getting representative samples would be harder. You'd probably need to take large samples, mix, and subsample.
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#4I'm sure there are great reasons, but why is it that we can't detect the virus in wastewater at a personal level? Could this be a less invasive way to test for covid19?
That'd arguably be less convenient than nasal swabs. But on the other hand, it might be more sensitive for early infections, given that TFA notes:
> Studies have also shown that SARS-CoV-2 can appear in faeces within three days of infection, which is much sooner than the time taken for people to develop symptoms severe enough for them to seek hospital care—up to two weeks—and get an official diagnosis, says Tamar Kohn, an environmental virologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.
Still, that'd be a lot of samples to test.
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#5I'm sure there are great reasons, but why is it that we can't detect the virus in wastewater at a personal level? Could this be a less invasive way to test for covid19?
There's an Adult Swim short about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ :)
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#6Interesting. That's also been done for recreational drugs. And artificial vanilla flavoring. I wonder whether sampling from sewage pumping units could be done. That might produce higher resolution data. But getting representative samples would be harder. You'd probably need to take large samples, mix, and subsample.
I remember reading something about this about a decade ago maybe in wired or popular science?
It was interesting because some organizations didn’t want to know that level of detail, which drugs were being used when, how many students came to school drunk etc. and all by sampling the sewage system regularly
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#7Ah yes, the quantified toilets joke from SIGCHI 2014 has come to unironic fruition:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/what-...
It was meant as a prank, not an instruction manual.
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#8I'm sure there are great reasons, but why is it that we can't detect the virus in wastewater at a personal level? Could this be a less invasive way to test for covid19?
There's an Adult Swim short about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ :)
They just never took the Smartpipe bit to its conclusion. No punchline happened. Broomshakalaka, however, is masterclass.
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#9Interesting. That's also been done for recreational drugs. And artificial vanilla flavoring. I wonder whether sampling from sewage pumping units could be done. That might produce higher resolution data. But getting representative samples would be harder. You'd probably need to take large samples, mix, and subsample.
Here's a recent wastewater analysis study showing the prevalence of several illegal drugs in Europe.
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/topics/pods/waste-water-analysis...
Re: Sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak
#10That is interesting. Do we now what the rate at which the virus dies in water?