Scientists in Switzerland have managed to detect the new coronavirus in low concentrations in wastewater, providing a possible new way of early warning of new outbreaks as the country lifts restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
If the method proves to be effective, taking samples of waste sewage would enable the health system to detect the re-emergence of the coronavirus epidemic, even seven days before diagnostic tests could show it, scientists estimate.
"The waste water does not lie and reflects what the public has excreted in the previous few hours," said scientific team leader Christoph Ort from the Swiss Federal Institute for Water Science and Technology.
Scientists from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and Lausanne (EPFL) say that the surveillance method still needs to be improved before clear conclusions can be drawn about the concentration of the virus in the samples. Despite this, the initial results of teams from two universities in Switzerland are encouraging, Hina agency reports.
They analyzed wastewater from Lausanne, Zurich and Lugano, including samples from the latter two cities collected at the end of February when the first cases of the coronavirus were recorded in Switzerland.
Scientists have managed to isolate the new coronavirus in all its causes. The concentrations in the most recent samples were so high that analysis was very simple. But it wasn't that simple with the samples from February.
"We didn't expect to be able to detect anything in Lugano's wastewater at a time when there was only one case (covid-19) and from Zurich when only six cases were recorded there," says EPFL's Tamar Koh.
After a successful pilot program, scientists in Australia announced in April that they expect to create a test in a few weeks that will analyze wastewater en masse for the presence of the virus in order to locate infected communities.
Bonus video:
