FROM: James D. Herberg, General Manager
Originator: Lan C. Wiborg, Director of Environmental Services
SUBJECT:
title
COVID-19 SEWAGE SURVEILLANCE PROJECT UPDATE
end
GENERAL MANAGER'S RECOMMENDATION
recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Information Item.
body
BACKGROUND
Sewage Surveillance, also known as Wastewater-Based Epidemiology, is the study of community-level infection prevalence through measuring the concentration of the pathogen either directly or indirectly (i.e., using biomarkers) in the pooled community sewage samples.
Under certain circumstances, sewage surveillance can be used to gather crucial information on the occurrence, intensity, distribution, and duration of an outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers it to be a part of the public health toolbox, since it has the potential to capture subclinical infections, can be implemented independent of healthcare-seeking behavior and testing access, and the data can be made available within days of shedding onset compared to the up to two-week lag for other surveillance data.
According to the CDC, while sewage surveillance cannot and is not intended to replace clinical surveillance, it can complement case- and symptom-based surveillance in the community where a significant portion of the population is connected to sewers. It could be especially helpful where testing data are not readily available, assist with monitoring high-risk facilities (e.g., prisons and nursing homes) through sub-sewershed level sampling, and provide infection information during sub-clinical phases. To date, sewage surveillance has been successfully utilized for population-level infectious disease surveillance for polio and hepatitis. However, a standardized method for detecting and measuring SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for causing COVID-19, does not currently exist.
Multiple research efforts are underway to develop valid analytical methods and to examine the potential applicat...
Click here for full text