Sewage May Be Essential to Spotting Next COVID-19 Outbreak

Health officials are looking at an unlikely source for early signs of a COVID-19 outbreak in their communities.

Sewage.
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READ MORE: Data about the coronavirus found in sewage can warn of an outbreak up to seven days before clinical testing shows signs of a spike, say wastewater epidemiologists. That can give public health workers time to get ready – prepare hospitals, ramp up closures and take other measures.

“You’re seeing it in sewage before people are really showing the symptoms, days and weeks before,” said Eileen White, director of wastewater for EBMUD, a utility that serves 685,000 households in San Francisco’s East Bay area.

Since the pandemic began, the field of wastewater epidemiology, which tracked polio and Ebola viruses, has grown rapidly in response. An international alliance of more than 400 researchers is collaborating to share findings and methods, in an attempt to bring the most accurate information about the disease’s spread to leaders.
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LINK: https://www.voanews.com/usa/sewage-may-be-essential-spotting-next-covid-19-outbreak

Видео Sewage May Be Essential to Spotting Next COVID-19 Outbreak канала Voice of America