Breaking: AMAZING success—Wastewater testing helps find 2 hidden asymptomatic #COVID19 cases at University of Arizona student dormitory! Astounding part is that wastewater test was done for each dorm building—allowing targeted dorm tests to isolate early! kold.com/2020/08/27/was…
2) “Wastewater samples from the Likins dorm on the University of Arizona campus came back positive for COVID-19, according to university president, Dr. Robert Robbins.
Dr. Robbins said they tested the water again, and all five samples came back positive.”
Dr. Robbins said they tested the water again, and all five samples came back positive.”
3) “they performed roughly 311 COVID-19 tests on students and staff in the Likins dorm, and found two positive cases (asymptomatic)—those individuals are now in isolation, and they are conducting contact tracing. wastewater collected from the other dorms showed no traces of COVID
4) “Dr. Ian Pepper and his team are sampling sewage from dorms to determine if someone is positive for COVID-19, even if they are not showing symptoms. Dr. Pepper said tracing sewage water can be one of the first methods to detect a resurgence of the virus.”
5) “Dr. Pepper said the method is accurate, and it can pick up a single positive case in a group of 10,000.
Studies have shown viruses can be detected in wastewater two-to-three weeks before many patients are diagnosed.”
Studies have shown viruses can be detected in wastewater two-to-three weeks before many patients are diagnosed.”
6) “Sewage surveillance is a leading indicator as opposed to deaths, that’s a lagging indicator. That’s the last thing you see” The researchers are not yet able to tell exactly how many people have a virus, like COVID-19, from the sewage water samples.
7) “The group started collecting samples in Tucson in mid-March.
Dr. Robbins said since campus reentry, they have tested more than 10,000 people and less than 50 have come back positive for the virus.”
Dr. Robbins said since campus reentry, they have tested more than 10,000 people and less than 50 have come back positive for the virus.”
8) Bottomline: Wastewater testing is an innovative way to detect early #COVID19 cases, especially if TARGETED to specific building drain pipes in college campuses. Boston also had some success recently in testing diff parts of the city.
9) Wastewater testing also previously successful in detecting early cases in Europe to late 2019.
10) Notably, wastewater samples in December isolated #SARSCoV2 in two cities in Northern Italy, before Wuhan outbreak was recognized in China.
11) IMPORTANT LESSON from wastewater is demonstrating how critical it is to identify cases early. Is not just how much you test, but almost critically HOW EARLY you can test and identify an outbreak.
12) P.s. another key detail is that all 311 students of Likins dorm were already tested as part of return to campus testing. Thus, the 2 cases likely acquired after coming back. All the most reason to do these followup surveillance.
