How sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak

Updated: 5/16/2020

We ought to apply sewage testing also to the common cold and influenza!

One more article about about this subject:

Countries Begin Large-Scale Screening for SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage

Researchers have found traces of the coronavirus at wastewater treatment plants in various locations around the world.

"In recent months, various researchers in several countries including the US, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, and France have all reported the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, ... " Plus Israel.

Sounds promising! Hopefully, this would allow to estimate the total number of infected people by not having to test every individual.

" ... Analysing wastewater — used water that goes through the drainage system to a treatment facility — is one way that researchers can track infectious diseases that are excreted in urine or faeces, such as SARS-CoV-2. ... One treatment plant can capture wastewater from more than one million people .... Some efforts to monitor the virus have been stalled by university and laboratory shut-downs and the limited availability of reagents to conduct tests ... detected traces of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater at Schiphol Airport in Tilburg only four days after the Netherlands confirmed its first case of COVID-19 using clinical testing. ... Tracking viral particles in wastewater could give public-health officials a head start on deciding whether to introduce measures such as lockdowns, ... Earlier identification of the virus’s arrival in a community might limit the health and economic damage caused by COVID-19"

How sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak: Wastewater testing could also be used as an early-warning sign if the virus returns.