statement released on Thursday. According to the officials, wastewater testing is effective in identifying cases of mpox infections.reportThursday’s announcement further supports the idea of utilizing sewage to monitor a wider range of diseases.
Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that within a span of seven days, the tests had a 32% chance of identifying the existence of at least one individual who was infected with mpox in a population ranging from thousands to millions.
Wastewater testing is a new tool for tracking bugs, study finds
Amy Kirby, in charge of monitoring the CDC’s wastewater surveillance efforts, initially had doubts about the effectiveness of the tests for a rare infection like mpox.
She stated that it ended up being highly successful.
As the number of infected individuals increased, the likelihood of the tests identifying infections also increased. Once the community had 15 or more infected people, there was a 76% probability that wastewater testing would be able to detect the presence of mpox.
Water that goes down a sink, shower drain, or toilet may contain small particles of viruses or bacteria that come from the skin or are excreted through urine or feces. Research has demonstrated that testing wastewater can serve as an early indication of a virus outbreak in a community, even before doctors begin to report cases.
How wastewater testing works
According to Joshua Levy, a researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in California specializing in wastewater monitoring and technology development, an entire city can be observed using just one sample.
According to Levy, we have been able to detect almost all types of viruses that we have searched for.
The monitoring system in the United States is expanding but still inconsistent. At present, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receives wastewater data from 863 counties out of a total of 3,143 counties, which accounts for approximately one-fourth of the nation. These counties are generally larger and house the majority of the U.S. population, but they do not encompass many rural residences that do not have access to municipal sewage networks.
The types of bugs that can be detected by wastewater testing
This approach to disease tracking rose to prominenceIn 2020, health authorities started analyzing wastewater for genetic traces of the coronavirus. Since then, it has become an integral part of the CDC’s operations.COVID-19 trackingThe number of reported results for nasal swab tests is decreasing.
The CDC started collaborating with a few cities in 2022 to search for polio in wastewater. During this period, a fresh initiative was also launched to detect mpox, formerly referred to as monkeypox, which experienced an outbreak.outbreaks in the U.S. and other countries.
The CDC conducted a recent study examining wastewater samples from 89 locations in 16 states, collected between August 2022 and May 2023. The researchers followed up by cross-referencing cases reported by doctors to verify their findings when detecting mpox DNA. Carly Adams, the lead author of the report at the CDC, mentioned that this was done to ensure consistency in their observations.
Also Read: Stay healthy this cold, flu, and COVID-19 season
The limitations of wastewater testing
According to officials from the CDC, not only did the approach successfully work, but it also seems to be more effective in detecting mpox compared to COVID-19. Nonetheless, the CDC officials advised caution when comparing them directly due to variations in the germs themselves and the accuracy of doctors in diagnosing and reporting different diseases.
The CDC has started gathering information on flu and RSV as well. Approximately 40 states have been conducting tests for these viruses and sharing their findings. However, the agency has not made this data available to the public yet. Officials are currently determining the most effective methods to present the information, but according to Kirby, it is expected to be released to the public by the upcoming autumn.
The agency has future plans of monitoring antibiotic-resistant germs and, according to Kirby, they will also begin tracking certain types of foodborne bacteria by the beginning of next year.
Kirby expressed that the performance of wastewater surveillance has exceeded all expectations. He also expressed enthusiasm about exploring other potential applications of this new tool in order to gain a better understanding of disease in various communities.
